The Hiller Instinct: Gender Gap

"He strikes him out!"

In the last seven presidential elections, men backed the Republican presidential candidate six times.

Women are more like Tim Wakefield's knuckle ball--it's impossible to predict where their votes will wind up: in the last seven elections, women went Democratic four times, Republican three.

Now the women's vote is being watched closely, because this presidential race is too close to call:

"This November we're going to shatter the glass ceiling once and for all," Sarah Palin said.

GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is energizing Republicans and terrifying Democrats.

Palin is different: she puts an attractive face on conservative values many democratic women despise, so some of them despise her.

Take this attack from a college professor:

"Her greatest hypocrisy is in her pretense that she is a woman," said Professor Wendy Doniger, of the University of Chicago Divinity School.

Feminists obviously fear some female voters will put sex before substance--ignoring Palin's policies.

Hillary Clinton is one of the women urging others to take a pass on Palin:

"No way, no how, no McCain, no Palin," Sen. Clinton said.

The link between Hillary and Palin is like an exposed nerve...so sensitive that--just today--Hillary cancelled a planned appearance at a rally when she learned Palin was also invited.

Hillary's strength in the primaries was among working-class women...the same women Palin appeals to...and Hillary is trying to hold them for Obama.

"All that McCain and Palin offer is four more years of the same failed policies and the wrong direction," Sen. Clinton said.

I can't even guess what will happen in November, but I do guess this: if the Republicans win, then, in 2012, the presidential candidates will be Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton...and then, no matter who wins, the glass ceiling in the White House will be shattered.

I'm Andy Hiller, and that's my instinct.

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