The Candidate: Barbie
Campaign Years: 1992, 2000, 2004, 2008
Corporate Sponsor: Mattel
Presidential Chops: She's a gymnast, doctor, nurse, cheerleader, and astronaut. She's also, in the words of her press secretary, "stunning" and "gorgeous" and "breathtaking."

A new study released by Northwestern University concludes that, all other things being equal, the gorgeous female candidate will trump an average-looking woman every time. And that's with women voters, too. That's good news for Barbie, who is more girly than Hillary Clinton, Elizabeth Dole, and Carol Moseley Braun combined.

While feminists mock Presidential Barbie's pink cell phone and matching pink laptop, Mattel's savvy partnership with the White House Project—a nonprofit dedicated to getting a woman elected to the nation's highest office—is a reminder that little girls don't have to strive to be first lady anymore. Another sign of this social transformation: Lucy Van Pelt is a presidential candidate in the 2008 Peanuts Election. Sure, she'll likely get trounced even worse than McCain will in the real one. But there's no longer any talk of Lucy marrying a dog.