News Flash: Women Aren't Monolithic

This piece reports that women, as a group, may not support Hillary Clinton just because she's a woman -- and that some Democratic women are even supporting John Edwards over Hillary!

Well, of course. It's long been an insulting assumption -- made primarily by the left -- that women are simply Democratic by nature, and that their gender will play the dominant role in determining which candidate they will support for President. That's not true, nor should it be -- any more than Barack Obama's appeal should be exclusvely about the fact he's black. The job of President is too important to be subjected to the race and gender considerations that too often overtake substantive political discussion.

For a long time, it seemed that Hillary Clinton played down her gender -- and rightly so. Now, she's playing it up, but no doubt as a matter of necessity. She senses that she's losing African American support to Obama, and needs to try to redefine herself as an alternative, exciting "first" to counter the greater sense of electricity around the Obama candidacy. Hence, she's falling back on the gender card.