How Will a Woman Become President?

There's an op-ed in WaPo today that discusses the implications the new television show Commander in Chief and the Harriet Miers nomination. Money quote:

"Together the two events capture the uncertain position of women in public life today. This is an odd, transitional moment in which it is conceivable that a woman could become president despite her gender and evident that a woman was selected for the high court largely because of it. Neither situation is especially satisfying."

While I don't necessarily think that Miers was nominated because a woman was retiring and she was a woman (after all, Roberts was the nominated to take this seat first), I do find it distrubing that she seems to be less qualified than the previous nominee. And she appears to be a Bush fangirl. Or is that how all of Bush's advisors talk to him? They couldn't find someone more qualified? Or a least someone a little less... attached to the President? I thought conservatives were suppose to be against diversity for the sake of diversity. I... never mind. I'll just end up going into an uninformed rant.

So on to Commander in Chief. My sister was upset that Gina Davis' character, MacKenzie Allen, only becomes president after the current President dies. But frankly, that is one of only two ways that I see a woman becoming President in the next 30 years. The other would be if both major parties nominated female candidates (Hillary vs Condi, anyone?). And that year would still probably be the best year for a third party candidate since Teddy Roosevelt ran on the Bull Moose ticket in 1912. As far as we've come, I simply don't think we're ready to look at a man and a woman and choose the woman on her merits. Why? Well, there's a reason the show is called Commander in Chief. That is the great distinguishing characteristic of the presidency that no other political office in this country has - control of the military. Governors, Senators, and even Supreme Court Justices can't send troops in to battle (though they can send National Guard troops to help in an emergency, Governor Blanco). We're still arguing over whether women should be allowed on the front lines. So how exactly are we ready to put a woman in charge of the military? I'm not saying a woman can't do it, I'm just saying we're not ready to give her the opportunity to do it. Some day. But not today.