I guess the point I was suggesting below is that while racism and perceptions of racial differences are rooted in bigotry and ignorance, gender differences are actually, you know, real. I'm not entering Larry Summers territory here, but important biological differences between men and women actually exist. And while we can dream of race blind utopia hundreds of years in the future when past injustices have been corrected and atoned for and enough procreative racial deconstruction has gone on to render much of it meaningless, a feminist utopia wouldn't be gender blind, at least not until we can all download ourselves into one of Glenn Reynolds' androids. An Obama victory would signal that we've gone another step towards the future race blind utopia, and it would be a tremendous thing for this country, but having a woman as president of the United States wouldn't simply signal an advancement in attitudes, but would actual be more of an advance in and of itself.
I'm not making a hierarchy of ills argument here - misogyny worse than racism! - I'm arguing that racism is more about correcting our perceptions of difference, while gender issues are about creating a society where men and women, despite their differences, are on equal footing. And because of that, a female president might be more of an advance.
Or not.
Flame on!
...adding that (should be) needless to say there are lots of other reasons one might consider when choosing a candidate.
