One of the frequent anti-Clinton statements that I read on Dailykos goes something like "I'd love to vote for a woman... just not Hillary". My question is, which woman?
Please don't construe this as an argument that we need to elect a woman or a Black man as some kind of statement. I'm never in favor of tokenism. You'll never see me argue that the main reason (or even one of the top 10 reasons) to back Clinton is her gender. I just don't think "any woman but Hiillary" is a terribly valid argument in light of how few viable female candidates we have, and the inherent prejudice against female candidates in our culture.
My question for all of the anti-Clinton people (or even the 4 Clinton supporters besides me), is "which female Democrats would you like to see run, and which ones do you think have a realistic chance at winning"?
We have 6 female Democratic Governors. I'd argue that 4 are not viable right off that bat. One was born in Canada, another is already in her 70's, the third is so unpopular that she isn't running for relection, and the 4th is an unmarried woman with stupid rumors about her sexuality (Clinton's got the same rumors, but she does have the jackass husband for cover). That leaves 2 as viable. Gregoire of Washington and Sebelius of Kansas. Gregoire has no major detractions that I know of, but no major assets either. Next to Clinton, Sebelius seems like the most electable woman we have in this country. She doesn't appear to be as conservative as one would expect from a kansas Governor (though almost certainly not to the left of Clinton) so it would not be supporting a DINO. She is, I think, the only other viable female candidate.
We have, I think, 11 female Democratic Senators. A few are too old (Mikulski, Feinstein, and arguably Boxer). A couple are too conservative to ever make it out of a primary (Lincoln, Landrieu), some are too new to make a real judgement about (McCaskill, Klobuchar). That leaves Cantwell, Murray and Stabenow (who supported the odious MCA). I don't see any of the ambition or national presence needed for a run in either of these 3, but I could be missing it.
Do you disagree with this assesment? Who else would you add?