A Woman's Place is in the House....

On T-shirts, bumper stickers, and buttons this phrase is often followed by words like "of bishops" or "and the Senate" or lately "the White House." As most of you know, I'm bit of a feminist and would love to see a woman in the White House, which is why Hillary Clinton ticks me off.

In the spring, in an essay you can view here I discussed my early feelings about many of the candidates. My concluding statement was that I don't believe gender should be an issue when electing a president. Sri Lanka, the UK, Canada, Israel, India, France, the Central African Republic, Portugal, Norway, Pakistan and Bangladesh have all had a female head of government. Here in America, shouldn't we join these "forward thinking" countries?

But then there is Hillary Clinton.

Whether one likes or dislikes her husband, the general consensus seems to be that he meant well (other than the whole bombing this as a distraction). I don't see that with Senator Clinton. The Senator sat on the board of Wal-Mart. Its been common knowledge for years that this company is morally bankrupt. For someone who spent some time trying to get everyone health care, it seems strange that she would support a corporation that believes quite loudly that the government can supply these people health care (in free clinics and government sponsored programs... we aren't quite set up for that yet).

Senator Clinton recently returned $850,000 in campaign contributions that were tied to Norman Hsu - a fund-raiser caught up in a Ponzi scheme, and her campaign seems to have been marred by things like this since the beginning.

A huge supporter of her initial Senate run, Clinton seems to have been disappointed many. She has spent much of her terms trying to please everyone, yet is somehow much less subtle than other candidates who flop around just as much. She doesn't come across as down to earth, or even as "one of the people" - a façade than many other candidates have mastered.

Her voting record isn't awful, and her (and Kucinich) have the BEST attendance of any congress person running for the President. (McCain is currently at 44% attendance. Sir, if you can't show up as a senator, what do you have to offer me as a president).

To be honest, Clinton hasn't shown me anything that she will do that really impresses me.


Probably unsurprisingly, I support Dennis Kucinich, but acknowledging the probability that he will not get the Democratic nomination, I swing to John Edwards. Because while he might not be fully progressive, unlike many of the other Democratic nominees, he isn't lying to me about being the moderate he is.