| | In the "Hitchens Bhutto" article discussion, I said: "I find it somewhat galling... that the USA has not found a woman with the political stature of Gerald Ford, Calvin Coolidge or Franklin Pierce."
Ted Keer took me to task: "We do not find politicians. They put themselves forth."
My point was that in the course of American political history, there have indeed been female office holders with qualities and qualifications at least as good as the less stellar of our presidents. The history of women in politics in the USA (and the world, generally) is underplayed, as much by feminists who need to complain as by men who feel threatened.
When did women first vote in America?
When did women first vote in the United Kingdom?
Compare and contrast these careers and achievements:
Nellie Tayloe Ross versus Harry S. Truman
Margaret Chase Smith versus Richard Nixon
Francis P. Bolton versus Richard Nixon
Ann Richards versus George Bush
Given these and so many more examples, what is there about American culture, nominally democratic and open, that prevents any woman of merit from holding an office held by women in the U.K., Pakistan, India, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Rwanda...
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