The frightening specter (to some) of a woman president


You would think that after so many women have been heads of state of so many countries for over fifty years, it would be considered only slightly noteworthy for the US to have a female head of state. The fact that people think it would be such a big step only indicates how backward US politics is.

And yet Bill O’Reilly seems to think that the possibility that Hillary Clinton (or any woman for that matter) might become president of the US opens the country up to all manner of dangers. Rather than watching O’Reilly, pay close attention to the women he’s talking to and the expressions on their faces as the drivel comes pouring out, bing-bing-bing-bing.

Weird. And hilarious.

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Comments

  1. says

    Now that’s the kind of airtight, well-researched reasoning that makes conservative thought so compelling to rabid woodchucks.

  2. moarscienceplz says

    Personally, I’d rather vote for Elizabeth Warren, or if not her, surely the Dems can come up with another woman. I’m still mad at Hillary for voting to invade Iraq, and then saying she did it because Bush lied about WMDs. If she really can’t tell when someon as obviously mendacious as Bush is is lying, how is she planning to have summits with other world leaders who are so much better at it?

  3. says

    The UK has had a woman PM, whom US conservatives still praise. In addition, the UK has had a female head of government for as long as most US conservatives have been alive. Australia has had women both as PM and Governor-General, and many Commonwealth countries have had women as Governor-General: Canada, New Zealand, the Bahamas and Belize among them. South Korea, Malawi, Brazil, Switzerland, Argentina, India, Israel, the Philippines, Iceland, Norway, Thailand, Pakistan — PAKISTAN!

    The US is one of the last hold-out and, not at all surprisingly, that puts us once again with countries like Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Vatican City.

  4. Cuttlefish says

    Seriously, I bet Billo just loved Maggie Thatcher.

    I base this on the fact that I did not, and I have never agreed with Billo on anything.

  5. StevoR : Free West Papua, free Tibet, let the Chagossians return! says

    Margaret Thatcher (Great Britain), Golda Meir (Israel), Indira Gandhi (India), Julia Gillard (Australia), Angela Merkel (Germany), Corazon Aquino (Phillipines), Benzhir Bhutto (Pakistan of all places!) -- just a few of many women leaders in recent historical times.

    Then there were Boadicea (spelling?), Queen Elizabeth I, Joan of Arc, Cleopatra (okay not one that ended so well), the Queen of Sheba etc .. in more distant historical times.

    Places NOT having female leaders seems more of an anomaly than vice versa really.

    I think Hilary Clinton would be a fine choice for US President in fact I think she’d have been the Democratic party’s best option in 2008.

  6. StevoR : Free West Papua, free Tibet, let the Chagossians return! says

    PS. Bill O’Reilly likes to think of himself as some kinda historian doesn’t he? How can he have missed all the examples noted in my comment above? How can he reconcile them with what he’s just spewed? I dunno.

  7. Schlumbumbi says

    Margaret Thatcher (Great Britain), Golda Meir (Israel), Indira Gandhi (India), Julia Gillard (Australia), Angela Merkel (Germany), Corazon Aquino (Phillipines), Benzhir Bhutto (Pakistan of all places!)

    Odd man out. Gillard got a proper kick in the teeth for trying to play the gender card -- something which immediately disqualifies anyone from holding a state’s highest office. Hillary Clinton tried it as well when going against Obama. Noone needs, noone wants, a self-pitying crybaby as the head of the state. It’s an embarrassment to the nation.

  8. says

    I guess this means O’Reilly thinks the same way about Sarah Palin, that she’s not up to the job.

    Clinton as US president worries me, but not because of her gender. She would make Obama look like a liberal.

  9. hannahs dad says

    Schlumbumbi got it wrong.
    Julia Gillard, former PM of Australia, was subjected to a vehement, dishonest, blatant and nasty misogynist campaign from Australia’s mass media, Murdoch in particular -- he owns most of Australia’s daily metro circulation -- and her mostly male political opponents for several years before she had the temerity, the gall, the utter effrontery, tsk tsk, to publicly call out, after extreme provocation, one of the principal culprits.
    Which didn’t stop the media etc from creating the meme -‘she played the gender card’ -- which Schlumbumbi
    repeats.

  10. Brian E says

    Odd man out. Gillard got a proper kick in the teeth for trying to play the gender card – something which immediately disqualifies anyone from holding a state’s highest office.

    You are a fool. I can’t think of any way to describe that comment. Sorry, you’re comment is foolish and suggests that you’re a fool.
    Gillard got ‘proper kick’ in the teeth. Type the word ‘Gillard’ in google and wait half a second and you’ll see the search term for this thing of beauty http://youtu.be/SOPsxpMzYw4.

    Seriously, every day men play the gender card. It’s women should stay at home, it’s women should raise kids, it’s women should not expect the same wages as men because they’re not manly. If they’re manly, their shrill or they should shut up. They get raped, it’s what were they wearing?. But when Gillard points this out, that’s playing the gender card? And she was roundly praised for her speech. What cave are you living in? Fool.

    On the topic, Gillard was PM, not head of state, the equivalent is Quentin Bryce, or the other woman she stands in for, Lizzy Windsor. Speaking of Lizzies, wasn’t Lizzy the first head of state of what became the US? I.e. Virginia was named because a woman couldn’t be unmarried and respectable unless a virgin….

  11. lorn says

    I’m glad Colbert surfaced the secret threat of women in office in an age of penis activated weapons and control systems.

    I mean, the issue isn’t one of a lack of grit, inherent ruthlessness, and a willingness to inflict pain on the tenderest of areas if provoked. Anyone who has been within half a mile of any man who is getting, or who has had, a divorce known that women can really work the vice on those tender globes if they have a reason to do so.

    The issue is clearly a matter of penis activated weaponry.

    Although, from an engineering standpoint I’m not sure some sort of, just brainstorming here, artificial penis might not work. Artificial penis … that’s not a thing is it?

    I wonder how Margret Thatcher solved this perplexing problem?

  12. colnago80 says

    The notion that a woman leader can’t manage a war is rubbish. Consider Margret Thatcher in the Falklands or Golda Meir in the 1973 Arab/Israeli war.

  13. StevoR : Free West Papua, free Tibet, let the Chagossians return! says

    @ ^ colnago80 -- Yes that absolutely. Seconded by me.

    Note both women leaders won very well and out fought and led their male -- and coincidentally totalitarian dictator “tough guy” opponents.

  14. StevoR : Free West Papua, free Tibet, let the Chagossians return! says

    @8. Schlumbumbi :

    Noone needs, noone wants, a self-pitying crybaby as the head of the state. It’s an embarrassment to the nation.

    Julia Gillard never cried on camera -- fact.

    Only one Aussie PM that I can recall ever did and that was Bob Hawke when he gave a speech on the 1989 Tinanmin square massacre. (Not on youtube? Really!?)

    Funnily enough, Bob Hawke was the first PM I recall and also the best in my opinion. I’d rate Gillard just behind him and then Keating, Rudd*, Howard and Abbott so far.

    Julia Gillard was subjected to an appalling and relentless abusive attack campaign in the Murdoch press as # 9hannahs dad accurately notes.

  15. StevoR : Free West Papua, free Tibet, let the Chagossians return! says

    * Oh wait, there was one other PM I recall blubbering and that was Kevin Rudd in his speech when he resigned the Prime Ministership refusing to contest a leadership ballot against Julia Gillard.

    Y’know I don’t mind people even political leaders getting emotional and expressing that when it’s something that matters to them and the rest of us. Sometimes respect that more indeed.

    @8. left0ver1under :

    Clinton as US president worries me, but not because of her gender. She would make Obama look like a liberal.

    Really, what makes you say that?

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