Hillary Clinton: "can a man running against a woman be elected president?"

From the American Thinker... and excellent analysis:

It's very easy to fall behind the times. It is for this reason that you find parents who never seem to really know what the younger generation is involved in, older folks who still act as if a hot dog should be 10 cents, and people who fight yesterday's social battles. As to the last thing, there are those who ask if a woman can be elected president.


The real question is, can a man running against a woman be elected president?


With androgyny being the order of the day, it has often been lamented that men no longer know what is expected of them. Is being chivalrous courteous or condescending? Do I hold the door or let her roar? A similar quandary is apparent when watching the men who must run against Hillary Rodham Clinton.


When Clinton stumbled in the second to last Democrat debate, her opponents' immediate political instincts were to attack the front-runner's now exposed weak flank. This is what office-seekers do; it's why the military term "campaign" is applied to political contests.


Yet almost as soon as the post-debate analysis began we heard the inevitable accusation that all and sundry were conspiring against the lone girl. The moderator, the other candidates, the butcher, baker, candlestick-maker and probably even male chauvinists beyond the grave were experiencing testosterone boil-over.


With the suddenly chivalrous media doing the heavy lifting, Clinton herself didn't have to say much, but she still wasted no time deftly playing the downtrodden woman card. At Wellesley College she remarked that presidential politics was an "all boys club" while campaign surrogates whispered about "sexism." Sure, she soon after took the high road and said the attacks were due to her front-runner status and not her chromosome configuration, but be not fooled.


That's the genius of it.


Subtly play upon the premise that women can never get a fair shake while your public relations team -- otherwise known as the US media -- pounds that drum hard, then soldier on nobly. As the cherry on top, have suddenly chivalrous husband Bill find time between mistresses to feign anger and say you're being "Swift-boated" because you never won the medal of maleness. Then millions will say, "Oh, what heroic virtue! She is a victim of the old boy network and by all rights could cry foul, but she merely endeavors to persevere. Class as well as courage."


This brings us to the problem confronted by the men: They're damned if they do and damned if they don't. If they don't attack Clinton, her faults remain hidden and she cruises to the nomination; if they do attack, they are faulted for hitting girls and she cruises to the nomination. They're between a feminist heart and a hard place.

Read the rest.