I hear on here day after day, non-stop, about how terribly sexist we are, about how hard poor Hillary has had it, about how this is setting women back for decades, about how will little girls (who apparently are supposed to be cowering in corners) ever think they can be president again.

The funny thing about is apparently any number of strong Democratic (and even one Republican) women who I respect in politics apparently haven't gotten the memo. Either that or they just refuse to wallow in self-pity.

Kathleen Sebelius has been repeatedly mentioned as a possible Vice Presidential candidate. She's made it to the top of Marc Ambinder's list over at the Atlantic, and Ambinder is renowned for often having inside information and being one of the most accurate political prognosticators.

"And yes, these lists change from week to week. That's part of the fun.

BARACK OBAMA

1. Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D-KS) -- Obama really likes her; that's very important.

2. The Virginia boys: Kaine and Webb

3. Gov. Ted Strickland (D-OH) -- the Clinton stand in.

4. Gov. Janet Napolitano (D-AZ)

5. Sen. Hillary Clinton -- there's a fine balance between subtle pressure and overt hectoring"

Link: http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/05/ambinder_veepstakes_lists.php

I also watch Hardball (everyday for the whole show as Joan claims to). Sebelius was been mentioned no less than 5 times as a potential Vice Presidential nominee last week, and not by Chris Matthews, but by guests (both male and female) who have brought it up on their own, unprompted interrupting Matthews to do so. Jenny Bacchus (she's at some political institute in New Hampshire), Chrysta Freeland (she's Canadian works at the Financial Times I think) and Perry Bacon (black guy at the Washington Post) all brought her up unmentioned.

There was a profile of her in the Washington Post I think about a month ago and Chris Cilizza (another young reporter on all the shows) did an interview with her back in April (she was great.) Link:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/video/2008/02/26/VI2008022600910.html

Now I bring all this up, which I will get deservedly slammed for (it's kind of like someone telling me well sure Barack Obama didn't work out but just wait for Harold Ford Jr.) to point out that this notion that Hillary Clinton is the last woman of her generation (Sebelius was born May 10, 1948 and is actually 7 months older than Clinton born in November 1948, but the difference is Sebelius doesn't care and has hinted she'll run for president at 68 age be damned. Oddly enough no one gave her a hard time. Maybe because she had the guts to stand up and dare anyone to) that could possibly be elected is simply wrong.

Where is Sebelius now you might ask? Easy busy trying to help her state recover from tornado damage yet again. You know, after she's already wiped out their $1.1 billion debt in six years, used the surplus to increase education funding, improved K-12 education scores, built jobs all 6 years and challenged George W. Bush on his constant over-deployment of National Guard troops.

So, just for the record, no I don't buy that we won't see another woman presidential candidate in anyone here's lifetime. I think we'll see one in 8 years. And she'll win. And I think she'll be on the ticket this time. The only thing is her name will be Sebelius not Clinton and many people here will have to re-think rather all (not some) of the vitriol towards Hillary Clinton was more because her first name was Hillary and she was a woman or more because her last name was Clinton ad she was, well, a Clinton. I think they'll be surprised.

But one thing, you only briefly touched on in the last paragraph is basically all 18-20 year olds were unable to vote in the Kerry election. They weren't of age. They are the ones most energized by the Obama campaign.

Also, unlike with Dean where the backlash was immediate in Iowa by older voters against younger voters you haven't seen as pronounced of a backlash yet. The case could be made it was in Ohio and Pennsylvania, but intervening events, such as Reverend Wright make it impossible to know if it was an anti-youth backlash or the result of other, larger problems Obama's campaign would have had to deal with (and which it has done effectively so far) sooner or later anyway.

And the other posters are right. You're gonna catch hell from Clinton supporters for this one. Use the words Obama and youth in the same sentence, let alone the same headline, and it's going to come back at you HARD. They hate what you're selling, even if it's right or potentially helps the Democrats.

One of the best I've seen here yet. It's also the reason many people (including experienced, political operatives and pundits like David Gergen and Carl Bernstein) never believed Obama would lose Indiana by more than 2 points even when the polling had Clinton up by 8.

Point is: You're dead on. Obama learned from the Daley machine. And it's still behind him. Don't ever let them fool you. Bill Daley was Al Gore's chief of staff (not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing) and technically, had Florida been counted right, Al Gore won the election (both in terms of the popular vote and the electoral math.) Hopefully they can bring it home this time.