phyllis Doyle Pepe, You say, “Aren’t we lucky to have a male presidential candidate who speaks for women in that way.” And I say, The only man I want to speak for me is when the ship is sinking and that bearded gentle soul points to the lifeboat and commands, “Ladies first.”

Mary Lou From Maine, I hope we can agree to disagree. It is a matter of perception. My theory is that any presidential candidate probably has few principles left. So I am hoping that, with a woman running for president, we don’t raise the bar for her and say that she must also “embody the Feminine Principle”. I find Hillary a flawed candidate but the 43 male presidents have had their flaws. I find Obama a flawed candidate also but I would like a female flawed candidate to be President of the United States of America.

Emcye, My computer crashed and the next thing I know I am up and running and returning to this site only to find your list, which made my day. Thanks.

The New York Times ran an article recently about who is waiting in the wings to run for first woman president after Hillary. It was a pretty bleak article, with a stretch even suggesting possibly Chelsea. Now Obama is also talking about the next generation of women for president. Obama patronizingly says, “Senator Clinton has shattered myths and broken barriers and changed the America in which my daughters and your daughters will come of age, and for that we are grateful to her.” Oh, well, why not wait for his daughters and for your daughters and for another generation and for maybe another fifty years or so.

My Alias, what a great family. We Singing Nun folks, well, maybe we could make a habit of it.

My Alias, I adore the Singing Nun singing “Dominique”. If only Beatrice Lillie could have gotten Noel Coward to write a refrain.

When the woman at the dinner table said she would never vote for a black man for president, did you ask her if she would vote for a dead woman? Being alive is of course a major problem for Hillary because the country is not ready for a live woman. Presently the only woman who could beat Obama is a dead woman. Yes, a woman such as Eleanor Roosevelt, Barbara Jordan, Ann Richards. You know, a dead woman. Maybe even women would vote for her. “If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back, and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it. The men better let them. Obliged to you for hearing me, and now old Sojourner ain’t got nothing more to say.” —Sojourner Truth

Lady Gator, so glad you are here. On this site you may be treated to criticism but rarely rudely expressed. If someone’s posting makes you feel “derided, degraded and demeaned”, hold on, just hold on, because what follows will be a counter posting from a perfect stranger defending your point of view. The women and men who post on this site are ensemble players.

Marjorie C. The pundits miss what you so easily grasp. The sexist media has created a negative Hillary who is the equivalent of everything awful to be found in Women. But from the backlash of this monster mother symbol inadvertently emerged a positive Hillary who fills us with awe at the good to be found in Women.

JJ GB, Today’s New York Times, May 18, 2008, “THE LONG RUN: The Story of Obama, Written by Obama” By JANNY SCOTT. “Reporters have questioned Mr. Obama’s use of fictional techniques like composite characters, but some editors and critics say that is common in memoirs… . Arnold Rampersad, a professor of English at Stanford University who teaches autobiography and is the author of a recent biography of Ralph Ellison. “It is so full of clever tricks — inventions for literary effect — that I was taken aback, even astonished. But make no mistake, these are simply the tricks that art trades in, and out of these tricks is supposed to come our realization of truth.” Time will tell if truth comes out of tricks. Literary tricks. Political tricks. Hope is not held in a trick, only the illusion of hope followed by disillusionment.

Shall we discuss the composite fiction of Obama and ask why he is still in the race? Shall we wonder why Oprah does not mind when Obama uses composite characters in his “memoir” but does mind when James Frey uses composite characters in his “Million Little Pieces”? If we took the million little pieces of Obama and pieced them together, shall we get a dandelion or a daisy or something less than the sum of the parts?

I agree that Fanny Flagg is fabulous. Early on in her career she was living in NYC. A couple of my friends were in the neighborhood one night, decided to stop by her apartment for a surprise visit, and were more than startled when Fannie Flag expecting someone else opened the door stark naked.

Linda Myers, I certainly agree with you about Obama as “someone that shifts on his feet so easily.” At this very moment he has fliers in Kentucky with a big cross on them that highlights his conversion experience. As for me, I am doing my own countdown: It is the flag pen in the lapel countdown, which began for Obama on May 13, 2008. We are now Day 2 Flag Pen Countdown.

In NYC if you break into a line, you get it from all directions. Obama is fortunate that he broke in line in front of Hillary instead of at a deli. After all she is only a woman. She’s not tuna fish.

When the idiots in charge of the Democratic Party decided to eliminate the voters of Michigan and Florida, they could have lowered the delegate requirement. Duh.