The XX Factor: What women really think.

Sex, Race, 'n' Politics

Thought I should jump in on Emily Y., Dahlia, and Emily B.'s discussion on young women voting for Obama over Hillary since, well, I'm a young woman who plans to vote for Obama over Hillary. The truth is, the symbolism of Hillary's gender and Obama's race matters immensely to me. Though I have grown up in an era when women and minorities run Fortune 500 companies, I think we're far from equality, and I'm absolutely giddy at the prospect of having a woman or a black man whose middle name is Hussein running things around here for a while. Ultimately, I'll be delighted if either one becomes president, but I'm rooting for Obama because his presidency wouldn't just be a giant step for the United States, but for the West. There's precedent for Hillary (Thatcher and Merkel), but not for Obama.

Andrew Sullivan expressed my feelings about the Iowa caucus winner better than I ever could in a recent article for the Atlantic, so I'll quote him instead of blathering: "Consider this hypothetical. It's November 2008. A young Pakistani Muslim is watching television and sees that this man--Barack Hussein Obama--is the new face of America. In one simple image, America's soft power has been ratcheted up not a notch, but a logarithm."