A woman cannot be President. The Constitution implies this.

It seems to me that if the US Constitution is taken literally, a woman cannot hold the office of President of the United States. “He” and “him” are mentioned no less than 20 times in Article II. “She”, “her” nor any other feminine pronoun is used anywhere.

Now I don’t think there is any real conspiracy here, but the Constitution is an official, legal document that should be taken verbatim. What if it was Hillary instead of Barack? Would we need to ratify a new amendment to fix the wording?

Full text here (among other places)

Article II

Section 1. The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. he shall hold his office during the term of four years, and, together with the Vice President, chosen for the same term, be elected, as follows:
...

The President shall, at stated times, receive for his services, a compensation, which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that period any other emolument from the United States, or any of them.

Before he enter on the execution of his office, he shall take the following oath or affirmation:--"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

Section 2. The President shall be commander in chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several states, when called into the actual service of the United States; he may require the opinion, in writing, of the principal officer in each of the executive departments, upon any subject relating to the duties of their respective offices, and he shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.

He shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States, whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by law: but the Congress may by law vest the appointment of such inferior officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of departments.

...

After the horrible treatment Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin received during this election year I wouldn't worry too much about it. A woman doesn't stand a chance in the hostile environment we live in today. It's a pity that things have deteriorated so badly in this country. I'm frankly ashamed of the behavior of men and women alike towards female candidates.

At the time the Constitution was written women had very few rights (even though Abigail Adams implored her husband, John, to "not forget" about women when they made the new laws). The thought of a woman voting for president, let alone running for president, was inconceivable to them. Naturally, therefore, they would use "he," "him" and "his." For only a man could hold political office.

Then again, the default pronoun sex tends to be masculine regardless of what anyone might have thought to be "conceivable" by the founding fathers in the time. I am fairly certain for many of them their vision went beyond the norms of their era even if they never spoke of it publicly.

Believe it or not, there was a time where there was no such thing as political correctness.

en.wikipedia.org...

There was rather an extended period of time in the history of the English language when the choice of a supposedly masculine personal pronoun (him) said nothing about the gender or sex of the referent.[1]

^ Susanne Wagner, Gender in English Pronouns: Myth and Reality, PhD thesis, Albert Ludwigs Universität, 2003. Page 41.

Just because it addresses the president in the form of "he" doesn't mean it's only a role a male can have. That's a pretty absurd interpretation.

As for the Hillary/Palin comment. I seriously doubt it had anything to do with them being women, it's just they had horrible ideas and such.

If a woman was coming out and talking like Ron Paul, I'd have voted for her. Hillary is pretty much a neo-con, even worse than Bush and Palin was just a political ploy based solely on the fact of being a republican MILF.

Blaming it on them being woman is just a cop out.

Originally posted by Shadoefax
It seems to me that if the US Constitution is taken literally, a woman cannot hold the office of President of the United States. “He” and “him” are mentioned no less than 20 times in Article II. “She”, “her” nor any other feminine pronoun is used anywhere.

Now I don’t think there is any real conspiracy here, but the Constitution is an official, legal document that should be taken verbatim. What if it was Hillary instead of Barack? Would we need to ratify a new amendment to fix the wording?

What you are stating is no different from the old adage of: "Mankind". "Mankind" means all of Humanity, including Women and Children. The same is also seen through the plural usage of: "Guys", as in "Hey Guys Let's Go". That is a term which denotes a group of people, but does not necessarily pertain to or differentiate Males from Females. It does not explicitly state within the United States Constitution that a President must be a Male, Man, or Non-Female. Simply because they use the wording of "He", does not restrict the Gender of a President by any means.

Also of note, for all of the Founding Fathers behind this Great Nation, we must never forget the Founding Mothers who nurtured and fought for the very same ideals and liberties which forever propelled this Great Nation forward. Abigail Adams is one who would have made a Great President any day, during any time period. She was the woman who held up John Adams, and forever sent him forth on his Mission of Liberty for all Mankind. Without this very woman, who knows, we might have NEVER had a Country. So to all of the naysayers, wake up and realize that a Woman President has been in the making since Independence was First Declared 232 Years Ago.

Shadoefax
It seems to me that if the US Constitution is taken literally, a woman
cannot hold the office of President of the United States.

Note that prior to the Civil Rights Act of 1866 women were not even federally guarunteed citizenship rights so in some states women would definitely have been considered incapable of holding the office. It would have been interesteing had a female candidate been nominated from a state that granted citizenship to women priot to 1866.

In any case Victoria Woodhuff was succesfully ratified as a presidential candidate in 1872, and there have been quite a few since then so I'm guessing it would be difficult to make a very convincing legal case out of a few gender pronouns.

Though interestingly, prior to 1920, women were only even allowed to vote in certain states.




[edit on 11-11-2008 by LordBucket]

Originally posted by Seeker Mom
After the horrible treatment Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin received during this election year I wouldn't worry too much about it. A woman doesn't stand a chance in the hostile environment we live in today. It's a pity that things have deteriorated so badly in this country. I'm frankly ashamed of the behavior of men and women alike towards female candidates.

I would have never guessed you were a women after reading this post.

Sarah Palin is an ignorant women, and if I were a women, she would be one of the last people I would want representing my gender. The amount of information that has come out about her since she lost the election about her campaign antics behind the scene make me sick as a guy, I couldn't imagine how embarrassed I would be as a women, having her run amuck and make a complete fool of herself, and in the process making it quite clear that women are just not designed for the President position.

Did you know that Africa is a country?

Originally posted by king9072


Did you know that Africa is a country?

Did you know that there are 57 States? Obama

Did you know JOBS is a 3 letter word? Biden

Did you know that one bomb destroy Pearl Harbor? Obama

Did you know that there is not one substantiated piece of evidence that Palin made the Africa comment? If you have a you-tube or audio clip, I would love to see it.

Did you know that there are people extrememely frightened of having strong women in politics, especially if she happens to be conservative?

Palin is a threat, and threats must be ridiculed, beaten down, and destroyed.

The media has a way of putting a target on someone. If you can't see the difference between the way Palin was treated and Biden was treated...I can't help you.