As I’ve been getting over my disappointment about John Edwards dropping out of the presidential race, I’ve been pondering the other candidates — what do they bring to the table?

One thing that can be telling about a candidate is identifying their other supporters — are those people I can connect with to help figure out who to vote for?

In deciding who to support, I’m not generally swayed by celebrity endorsements. They’re interesting and they sell newspapers, but they don’t influence my vote. But the candidates must think they do.
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Trying to explain our electoral process to an eight-year-old is like trying to help your child make sense of why the boys who like you in the classroom pick on you during recess.

It’s all a bit inscrutable.

What’s even harder is trying to help a second-grader grasp that while the election coverage that mommy is addicted to has been going on since before she started this school year, that things won’t be over until she’s settled into a third-grade routine later this year.

“But WHY?” is my daughter’s continual response when I try to explain why we don’t have a new President yet.
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When it comes to political women, does it get any better than Gloria Steinem?

Whether you agree with her politics or not, I’m assuming that most of us would agree that her voice had a major impact on how women can choose to live their lives today. And at the age of 73, she’s still not shying away from feminist controversy.

Knowing that Steinem, and others like her, were out there in the world as I was coming of age was a beacon for me. I knew that I would have way more choices about my destiny — both professional and otherwise — because of what she, and others like her, fought for.
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A couple of months ago I wondered if Oprah’s very public endorsement of Barack Obama would backfire.

Apparently, for some, it has.

I thought maybe some fans would just see the endorsement as a bit of Oprah-overreaching. But one Oprah-lyte started a discussion thread on Oprah’s website entitled, “Oprah is a Traitor!!!” Apparently some viewers and fans who believed Oprah’s messages of female empowerment and ‘you go, girl!’ felt her endorsement of a man for the White House amounted to turning her back on what has become her bread and butter — the all woman, all the time message.
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Women’s Voices, Women Vote has launched its new get out the vote campaign. In 2006, the theme was “Do You Remember Your First Time?”

For 2008, WVWV is targeting single women again — 20 million of them in the “20 Million Reasons” campaign. Many pollsters and pundits have said that women voters will be the key to this historical election. But single women historically haven’t voted in the same numbers as married women.

Of those 20 million women being targeted, slightly over half are single mothers.
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On a flight last year to Los Angeles, I watched six straight episodes of America’s Next Top Model on the DirectTV screen in front of me.

I know … I’m weak. Without any Project Runway to keep me occupied, I settled for a lesser reality show.

But apparently for Hillary Clinton, America’s Next Top Model is the bomb! I suppose if you’re a guest on Tyra Banks’ talk show, you kind of have to say that. And Hillary is going to be on Tyra’s show this Friday!

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I’m surprised to find myself saying this, but I felt bad for Hillary Clinton last week.

The New Hampshire Democratic debate had all the hallmarks of junior high — do we like Hillary Clinton more than Obama or Edwards? Hillary jested that her feelings were hurt at the suggestion that she wasn’t at the top of the likability scale. Barack Obama’s snarky inner sophomore surfaced when he blurted in a condescending and dismissive tone that Clinton was “likable enough.”

Oh wait, I know that tone. That sounds more like some offices I’ve worked in.

And then there was the “teary” moment.
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Gloria Steinem raised a really interesting question this week in the New York Times about gender (one I wish I would have thought of first!):

If Barack Obama was a woman with the same experience and history, would we even be talking about whether” she” was a qualified candidate?

Steinem thinks the answer is, unfortunately, clear.

Steinem asks:

“The woman in question became a lawyer after some years as a community organizer, married a corporate lawyer and is the mother of two little girls, ages 9 and 6. Herself the daughter of a white American mother and a black African father — in this race-conscious country, she is considered black — she served as a state legislator for eight years, and became an inspirational voice for national unity.

“Be honest: Do you think this is the biography of someone who could be elected to the United States Senate? After less than one term there, do you believe she could be a viable candidate to head the most powerful nation on earth?”

Her point is a good one. Odds are, if you break it down that way, many of us would say “no.”

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If you’re the mother of a girl between the ages of six and 16, you know who Ashley Tisdale is.

Maddie from The Suite Life of Zach and Cody. Star of High School Musical I and II.

Sweet, wholesome, cute, talented. A Disney Hollywood starlet we don’t mind our daughters watching.

Until she got a nose job.
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Much as I tried to avoid it, I felt I couldn’t stay away from today’s caucuses in Iowa as a blog topic. Hey, I am PunditMom, after all!

But what I have to say is this — are the caucuses really all that important?

The constant commentary about Iowa that’s been pouring from my TV, my car radio (I’ll admit, though, that I’m loving the POTUS ‘08 channel on my new XM radio service!) and my computer screen these past weeks has been enough to make me think that the outcome of the election is going to be a done deal by midnight on January 3, instead of November 4.
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