Of course you have a choice; you can walk

For what it’s worth, a partial list of women who Your Humble Blogger feels would be better suited to be the First Woman President than Senator Clinton, both from the point of view of actually governing the country and from the point of view of the inevitable mythologizing as a role-model, would include Senators Boxer, Mikulski, Stabenow, Murray, Governors Napolitano and Sebelius, Speaker Pelosi, Representatives Schakowsky, DeLauro, Slaughter, Millender-McDonald and conceivably Waters or even Velásquez, Justice Bader Ginsberg, and the lifeless corpse of Barbara Jordan.

On the other hand, in Your Humble Blogger’s opinion, the odds of any woman other than Senator Clinton winning a Presidential election in the next twelve years are essentially nugatory. Therefore, if you think it is in some sense Important to have a woman be President soon, it would be a mistake to refuse to support Senator Clinton because she is the wrong woman. It’s Hobson’s Choice here, as it is so often in politics.

That said, even if you think that it is in some sense Important that there be a woman President soon, you may well think that there are other things that are even more important. As for Your Humble Blogger, while I recognize that it would be swell to have a she-president, and the simple fact of there having once been a she-President would improve (a) the chances of there being another, probably better, she-President later, and (2) the lives of lots of women who will never be President and will never want to be President, it is also true that having a really good and effective he-President would improve the lives of women as well, and increase (more slightly) the chances of there being a good she-President in 2020 or 2024.

Similar things could be said about Barack Obama and the chances of any non-White President. I’d rather have Charlie Rangel, all things considered, but I ain’t getting him. Would I rather have Barack Obama be President than an identical-but-White candidate? Sure, but he ain’t running, either.

I haven’t decided on a candidate to support, yet, and I hope I won’t for another six months or so. I think that all of the candidates—Senators Clinton, Obama, Kerry, Dodd and Biden, and Governor Richardson—are likely to make reasonably good Presidents, in the event. Even General Clark and Representative Kucinich, both of whom seem to me to have a higher-than-comfortable chance of being disastrous Presidents, also have a decent chance of being very good Presidents indeed. I could name half-a-dozen people who aren’t running that I think would be very likely to be better for the country than any of the people who are running (and that would include an undead but revivified Barbara Jordan, who I would be happy to keep supplied with brains if only...), but so what?

Tolerabimus quod tolerare debemus,
-Vardibidian.

3 thoughts on “Of course you have a choice; you can walk

  1. hibiscus

    kerry seems to be out. very clearly said “not running” on the daily show last week, and in fact took another pasting from stewart in the process.

    stewart’s attitude of sell me, but don’t lie when you do it just reeks. television people should be kept a mile away from politics.

    Reply
  2. Chaos

    While we’re electing undead Texas politicians, can i put in a request for Ann Richards, please?

    Also, one of the problems with Clinton is that we know a lot more about her. I mean, Mikulski is actually my senator, and she seems okay. But i wouldn’t be able to say with confidence that i’d like most of those people better than Clinton if they were running.

    Reply
  3. hibiscus

    cheney and the devil are neck-and-neck on my ballot. i shouldn’t tolerate the devil but he and i share so many loves, and he speaks of them so beaufifully, accompanying himself on harp and chimes….

    Reply

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