I believe that far too many women today are wearing blinders when it comes to Hillary Clinton. They will vote for her simply because she is a woman, regardless of her growing legacy of lies, support for right wing causes and her associations with right wing religious figures.

I look at her support for the Defense of Marriage Act, the Workplace Religious Freedom Act, her vote for the war, her anti-flag burning legislation and her subtle, but unmistakable use of race, and it makes me question just who she really is as a politician, not a woman.

Her wisecracking to Jay Leno about being under sniper fire and almost not making it onto his show was appalling. Real snipers have killed not only a large number our troops, but Iraqis, as well. She's lucky the Obama-loving press corps didn't attack her for making light of such a deadly issue that has visited many families.

And then there's the use of race. From South Carolina to Geraldine Ferraro to her use of Richard Mellon Scaife to attack Obama over Reverend Wright, it's simply been repulsive. The Clintons have rendered any illusions about Bill being the first black president null and void.

As for lying, well, Bosnia, the hospital horror story, and now she's flat-out lying about being opposed to the war in Iraq before Obama was. She confirms people's worst perceptions when she pulls these stunts. And for what? What did she gain by telling that Bosnia canard one too many times except for a 37% approval rating? She can't help herself. She feels she always has to inflate her experiences and go out of her way to appear tough because she's a woman. She's right. But that should not give her a free pass to create her own reality.

And she gets a free ride on her dealings with The Fellowship, that secretive right wing religious group in Washington, DC, to which she belongs. And her appearance on Pat Robertson's 700 Club? The guy who blamed 9/11 on gays and abortion, what does that say?

Far from Obama getting a free pass, it's Hillary who's been getting a free pass from the press and far too many of her supporters. They are hell-bent on supporting Hillary just because she's a woman and have said as much to me. Damn the issues, damn her fawning all over John McCain, full speed ahead.

It's funny. I've been accused of being a sexist for pointing these conflicts out to Hillary supporters, many of them women. They get irrational, defensive and eventually start hurling their favorite political football at me, Reverend Wright. I take that back, it's not funny, it's sad. It's a comment on race and gender that they just don't get. When you get right down to it, they feel free to attack an African American to make a point. It's ingrained in America. The hard truth is that I didn't learn about sexism until I was much older. I'd gather most women did not worry about it at an early age, either. But I'm sure we all heard racist jokes as kids. Those we could grasp. Black and white was just that, black and white. Sexism was in shades of gray.

And not for nothing, but no white woman was ever lynched for talking the wrong way to another white woman or trying to cast a vote. In the South small children watched crosses burn and watched their fathers and mothers beaten on the streets for daring to oppose the status quo. Andrew Goodman, Mickey Schwerner, and James Cheney ended up under an earthen dam in Mississippi. Of course, no man ever died from a botched abortion. Different people, different pains.

In the end, I fear that poll has been rendered useless by the very fact that it is Hillary running for president. She is a polarizing presence at best, and lives up to the reputation that made her such a polarizing figure in the first place. She confirms the worst of both worlds. That from the left, she is far too compromised by her support of the war and some of the worst pieces of legislation in Congress, and from the right, that she is a calculating liar. I happen to find both aspects incredibly troubling. Some are willing to overlook those faults. I'm a white, liberal male who will not.

I believe that if the question were asked in a different way, without the 800 pound Hillary gorilla occupying the room, the results might surprise you. I think a large majority of Americans ARE ready for a female president. I certainly am. It's just not Hillary.

Well, duh.

Gloria Steinem had the audacity to point out this very thing some months back and you could hear the liberal tut-tutting from sea to shining sea. Can't say that, doncha know?

I'll take great pride in voting for a fellow woman as president when a fellow woman who deserves to be president is on the ticket.

But Hillary Clinton is not that woman. Not a woman whose main life experience is as a "political wife" and "Bimbo-eruption dust-buster" -- with a fairly short Senate gig as a chaser. Not with the triangulation, raw and ugly Machiavellian tactics, lack of inspirational leadership, and pandering.

And the bottom line...

-- THIS PERSON VOTED TO LET GEORGE BUSH GO TO WAR.

I don't care WHAT chromosomes she's got -- this is a person who made the stupidest, most craven, most political decision of a career, and it was truly the wrong decision. She knew it before she cast it, she knew it when she cast it, and she knows it know.

And for that alone, she doesn't deserve to be president.

I don't care about her gender.

I care about her politics. Her judgment. Her past decisions and behavior. Her leadership ability. And her ability to transform America.

And she falls short in every arena.

Is it sexist to want the best person for America?

Is it sexist to want someone who has good judgment?

Is it sexist to want someone who will be perceived on the world stage as a truly positive sea change for America?

If that's sexist, then you can call this independent, feminist a sexist, Joan.