The interesting bit about Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign for me is the question whether the American people are ready for a woman president. Reading articles in the general press in America, it seems that this could possibly not be the case. With other words prejudices against women, that glass ceiling story, will be too strong for her to overcome.

Of course, what doesn’t add to her position is the fact that she would be taking over a country during a war. To my knowledge, there haven’t been that many women admirals or generals. With other words, the voters might consider the need for a man to take over during this time, because of the conflict in Iraq.

Hillary Clinton is an extremely intelligent person though. She has worked at her campaign for a long time. Probably before her husband Bill ever got to the White House. Can you imagine the conversation at home? Darling you go first, no honey, you go first etc. However one looks at it, during the last years she has been working on her campaign. During her time in the Senate, she has cultivated an expertise on defence and foreign policy. She has taken high-profile trips to Iraq and Afghanistan. She serves on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

What might work against her could be the vote she gave to Bush to start the war. On the other hand, could she have afforded to vote against the war, with the sentiment in the States at the time? It could have been too damaging to take a stand against a war.

So will she be able to depend on the female vote? 51% of the female population is now single in the States. Besides this, during the 2004 elections, 54% of the electorate were women. And the general consensus seems to be that this could go up. Already, polls indicate that a higher percentage of women are supporting Clinton than the other male candidates both for the party nomination as well as the presidential race.

But Hillary Clinton would be short sighted, and I feel she is everything but that, if she were to pin her hopes on just the female vote. As much as it seems that she has a very good chance to win the Democratic election, winning the national vote, could be an altogether different matter. One never knows what the public might decide. After all, it has been beyond most intelligent outside observers’ comprehension, how Bush could have won the first election and then actually win a second term in office. With that sort of track record of the voting public in America, I suppose anything is possible. Meaning, what appears to be a really great candidate such as Hilary Clinton, could end up getting nowhere.