This election is not about eMail or taxes or policies. It's about women.

[CK_John]

Should we put a woman in the White House?

Everything else is an excuse.

[hughee99]

1. An election shouldn't ever be about anything other than putting the best person in office.

Is it really a "victory for women" if Clinton gets elected just because of her gender and not because she's the best person for the job?

[yallerdawg]

9. Is it just coincidence then...

that for the last 44 presidential elections no woman has ever been considered the "best person"?

That is an extraordinary record, if it has nothing to do with gender.

[hughee99]

13. How many women from major parties have the voters had the opportunity to vote for?

Look, I'm not suggesting their hasn't been a bias in the system, but do you really think gender is the reason you (or anyone) should vote for a candidate?

As another poster put it below, if Clinton were a man and Trump were a women, would you feel like this election was all about deciding whether a woman should be president?

[sarae]

17. I don't think anyone is arguing that

gender is the reason to vote for a candidate. But in this election, I think gender is the reason a lot of people won't vote for a candidate.

[smirkymonkey]

24. Bingo! If she was the same exact person but male, I'm pretty sure she

would be way further ahead than she is now.

[athena]

27. Exactly.

It's amazing that some people read the OP and think it's telling people to vote for HRC because she's a woman. It shows just how blind some people are to the sexism around them. They actually think it's a privilege to be a woman and are annoyed that some people might vote for HRC because of her gender.

[hughee99]

49. Is there a large number of Dems or independent voters that won't vote for a woman?

We already know the republicans weren't going to vote for a Dem anyway, even if the nominee was a white male.

[sarae]

53. I don't think it's as simple as counting

the number of people who say, "I refuse to vote for a woman." I think a lot of people refuse to acknowledge, both to themselves and to others, that the reason they have so many "problems" with Hillary is because she's a woman. They come up with reason upon reason why she's not fit for the White House, but the underlying reason has a lot more to do with sexism than they'd like to admit.

During the primary, I heard several liberals claim they'd vote for Elizabeth Warren, but it's easy to say that when she's not the one running. When she was running for office, she had almost the exact same perception problem Hillary did – as the two articles below state.

http://bluenationreview.com/warren-faced-nearly-identical-likability-and-honesty-challenges-as-hillary/

http://qz.com/624346/america-loves-women-like-hillary-clinton-as-long-as-theyre-not-asking-for-a-promotion/

[Hortensis]

18. Nope. But only enemies believe there are not

MANY reasons to vote for HRC without ever considering her sex. Really dishonest enemies.

It's strange, because breaking this particular barrier to the equality promised at our nation's founding for half of all Americans IS huge, but the duties of the presidency are themselves so overwhelmingly important that few people would vote for her predominantly to elect a woman president, and extremely few only because she's a woman.

But I expect you know perfectly well that your questions would actually apply to effectively almost no one.

[yallerdawg]

19. For an awful lot of voters...

supporting Hillary will be not because she is a woman, but despite being a woman.

That is what we have to overcome! And this is all about gender.

[hughee99]

50. Are you talking about sexist Democratic voters?

That's what it sounds like.

[yallerdawg]

55. "A kicked dog howls loudest."

It seems to me the most upsetting, outrageous, irritating, invalid, illegitimate reason to vote for Hillary is because she is a woman?

What exactly should we call that?

[pnwmom]

45. If she is NOT elected it will be because of the different, gender-based, standard applied to her.

She is so clearly more qualified in every way.

[hughee99]

52. Like Al Gore and John Kerry? Both were clearly more qualified than Bush, weren't they? n/t

[yallerdawg]

56. Gender was not an issue in those contests.

Anyway it went, a man was going to be elected.

Right now is the first time a woman has been nominated by a major political party, the first time a woman has a real opportunity to be elected President of the United States.

The first time!

[hughee99]

57. Yes. I agree. But you were suggesting that she should

Win because she's the most qualified and my point is that the most qualified person doesn't always win even if they don't have to battle gender biases.

[pnwmom]

58. To us they were. But Bush was a former governor of a large state. He was far more qualified

than Trump. And he had the sense enough not to say crazy things while he was running.

[metroins]

2. I don't think that's it at all.

I like Hillary because she's the most qualified, most intelligent and likely the best person to lead us for the next 4-8 years.

I do not care if she is a woman.

[athena]

30. What the OP is arguing

is that people are against HRC because she's a woman.

I care very much that Hillary is a woman. If she were a man, Trump wouldn't stand a chance. The e-mails would be a non-issue. Her voice tone would be irrelevant. Everything about her would be interpreted as a sign of strength, as opposed to a sign of unlikability. To counteract those who are against Hillary because she's a woman, some of us have to be unashamedly for Hillary because she's a woman. Saying that one supports Hillary because she's a woman doesn't mean one would support an incompetent woman like Sarah Palin or Michele Bachmann. It's just a way of admitting that we live in a very sexist society, and that it's many times harder for a woman to succeed in politics than a man, especially as a liberal.

[pnwmom]

48. Right. Her superior qualifications would be unquestioned if she were a MAN.

Her gender is what is causing the media double standard that is benefiting Trump.

[metroins]

64. I don't think so

I think if Bill were able to run, he'd get the same scrutiny.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

3. I thought it was about driver-less cars......

.

[Mass]

4. I would not vote for Trump if he was a woman and Hillary Clinton was a man.

As a woman, I feel offended when people suggest otherwise.

[smirkymonkey]

31. So do I. It's so insulting.

[athena]

36. Who has made such a suggestion?

All I see is the suggestion that those who are against HRC are just making excuses. They are really against her because she's a woman, and they can't stand the idea of a woman leading the most powerful nation on Earth.

[sarae]

62. I'm confused as to why many

have interpreted the OP as saying people are only voting for Hillary because she's a woman. That's not at all how I read it.

Incidentally, I don't think I've heard anyone accuse Trump supporters of only voting for him because he's a man (sorry, a man-baby).

[demmiblue]

5. Unrec. n/t

[KMOD]

6. WTF?

It's all about policies.

[B2G]

7. Maybe for you, but

not for the vast majority.

[closeupready]

8. Unrec.

[Jamaal510]

10. This somehow reminds me

of those people who were accusing all Obama supporters of voting for him because he's Black, as if his stances had nothing to do with our votes.

[SunSeeker]

12. Yep. nt

[etherealtruth]

51. Mirrors it!

[sheshe2]

54. Yup!

[Buns_of_Fire]

11. I'll go ahead and make the assumption that this is tongue-in-cheek.

Or, as an eminent editorial cartoonist put it in a recent cartoon, "I'm not crazy about Hillary. But I'm not crazy."

[loyalsister]

14. Not really

Allowing Trump to becomes president would be a complete disaster and truly a tragedy for the US. If it were only about putting a woman in the white house, feminists would have lined up to support Michelle Bachman in 2012.

[Throd]

15. I thought it was about robots and a 20 hour work week.

And retirement at 40.

[sarae]

16. I think people's reactions to this election

are far, far, far more influenced by gender than they would like to believe. There's a reason we haven't had a woman in the White House yet. And yet this aspect is virtually ignored in the coverage.

[LiberalLoner]

20. Yup.

[LanternWaste]

21. To a rational mind, an election revolves around more than one issue.

To a rational mind, an election revolves around more than one issue. It is also about the environment, the poor, healthcare, trade, and many other issues... in addition to the long overdue presence of feminism in a position of authority.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

22. I thought it was about Driverless Cars.

[lumberjack_jeff]

23. Driverless taco trucks. n/t

[Lee-Lee]

26. Mexicanless taco trucks?

Trumps idea of automation...

[Nuclear Unicorn]

25. So if Sarah Palin we're running against Bernie Sanders you'd vote for

[athena]

34. The real question is this: if HRC were a man,

would Trump be doing so well? Would we be talking about e-mails? Or four people tragically killed in an attack? Or the candidate's voice tone? Or his likability?

Some people are so obsessed with the "privilege" that Hillary Clinton supposedly has in this election because she's female ( ) that they manage to read something completely different into the OP than what was intended. The point is not that people who support HRC do so only because HRC is a woman. (To think this, you would have to believe that HRC has nothing besides her gender to recommend her.) The point that the vast majority of those out there who are against HRC are against her because she's a woman.

Of course, the idea that sexism is still a problem and hurts women is such a radical one that it makes some people's heads explode. To them, it's like saying that the Earth isn't round, or that the color of the sky at night is bright fuschia.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

35. "Would we be talking about..."

Yes.

Bill Clinton didn't have it any easier. Or Jimmy Carter. Or Walter Mondale. Or Michael Dukakis. Or Al Gore. Or John Kerry.

[athena]

38. Are you suggesting

that there is no sexism at play here? That the Republican Party and the media are treating HRC exactly as they would be treating her if she were male?

Do you also believe the Republican Party would have demanded President Obama's birth certificate if he had been white?

Only a white man who never listens when women and minorities speak could seriously believe that sexism and racism are obsolete and no longer relevant.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

40. Are you suggesting the GOP likes Clinton's policies, only her gender offends them?

That doesn't say much about Clinton's policies.

What a weird thing to be upset at me about.

[athena]

44. They can't get past her gender

just as they couldn't get past President Obama's racial makeup. Even when President Obama proposed policies based on what they had been demanding for decades, they rejected him. Even when he nominated a Supreme Court justice for whom numerous Republicans had previously expressed respect, they blocked him. To think that the Republican Party is treating President Obama exactly the way they would be treating him if he were white, you have to be oblivious to the history of racism in this country. The same is true of sexism. The fact that so few people are willing to accept this is astounding. It shows why we still can't overcome racism and sexism. To solve a problem, you first have to recognize that it exists.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

46. I don't want to vote for a president whose policies mirror the GOP's.

Sorry, I'm just weird like that.

[athena]

47. Are you saying that HRC's policies mirror the GOP's?

Or are you just taking a part of my comment out of context while ignoring the overall point I was making?

[synergie]

42. Actually, they did.

[BobbyDrake]

28. Too obvious, John. Self-delete.

At least the post; maybe the whole account.

[elleng]

29. No, I disagree,

it's about repugs' everlasting hatred of the Clintons. I will not blame mi·sog·y·ny when that's not the case.

Of course they'll find reasons loudly to oppose any Democratic candidate, no doubt about it.

[Stonepounder]

32. There's an old adage that says:

A woman has to work twice as hard as a man to be thought half as good.

That's what Hillary is fighting, along with the MSM, Judicial Watch, and the like. On an even playing field Hillary would wipe Trump off the playing field. Or to use a chess analogy, on any sort of an even playing field she would checkmate him in about three moves and move on.

[downeastdaniel]

33. Gee, I think the TPP and Canadinan Filthy Rock Oil are important...so is World Peace...

[Festivito]

37. No, because then it would be about America being 40 years behind the times.

Hillary's better than that.

[HereSince1628]

39. Well, then there is a really easy decision point

[bigwillq]

41. I am all for putting a woman in the White House

But I do not think that's what this election is about.

[progressoid]

43. Global warming.

That's my main thing.

[NurseJackie]

59. Do go on! Tell us more!

[zappaman]

60. Awesome hit and run!

I'll be voting for the most qualified this November.
What will you be doing?

[LWolf]

61. JFCOCT.

I'm a woman. This election is not about women.

I FUCKING HATE IDENTITY POLITICS.

Every election is about, for me, ISSUES.

[NCTraveler]

63. Thankfully we have a woman running..

Who loves to email, has released years of taxes, and has a kick ass progressive platform.