it won't happen anytime in the next century, I'm pretty sure of that. governors are different, all they have to do is appeal to their geographical area. winning the favor of the majority of the country is much tougher. this is a huge nation with a massively diverse range of people. it's a little depressing that, the more varied the population, the more bland and generic a candidate must be to avoid alienating any group.
with so much attention being paid to discrimination against gay people, ethnic groups, and the poor, I think we lose sight of the fact that sexist views still exist in a lot of people- some overtly and some hidden. It's just something that no longer causes as much incident day to day. In something as important as an election, people want to stay where they feel safe, which means abandoning some of that well-played liberalism. just because someone can work side by side with women doesn't mean they'll favor a woman for president. hell, we don't even have any female airline pilots!
look at how homogeneous the basic stats of our presidents have been. All anglo, almost all protestant, and all but one or two descended from England or Ireland. Kennedy was the first Catholic president, and even that was a big deal. it'll be awhile before a woman or person of any sort of non-anglo ethnicity has a real chance. there are several generations of old-fashioned narrow-mindedness that need to die off first, then maybe we can be as cool as europe.
"The last train out of any station will not be full of nice guys."
- Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
"I wash my face, then drink beer, then I weep.
Say a prayer and induce insincere self-abuse,
till I'm fast asleep"- In Trousers
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