Substance in Leadership

Why are we so concerned with having the first this, or the first that? What ever happened to qualities like, oh, I don't know, experience? Just when I begin to think, "At last! We're finally done patting ourselves on the back for being so enlightened," I have to read about Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama descending on Selma Alabama. I'm sure I'm not the only one who said, "What the hell are they doing there," but I get it. She might be the first woman president, he might be the first black president. Well, as the French say, "Who cares?"
Remember just a couple of months ago, everyone, including the president, was all jazzed up because HOORAY! The Speaker of the House has a vagina! If we really wanted to prove that we're an enlightened and fair society, we wouldn't have brought it up at all. I don't care if she's a grandmother, a mother, a sister, or a blasted monkey. I care about legislation. I want to know why she is qualified to be in the line of succession. Now, I'm a simple man, so the fact that she's a liberal democrat was enough for me to make up my mind, but you're probably more sophisticated than that. So, which is it, were you clapping for deescalation of the war, or for the vagina? Either way, you're an idiot. But back to the point.
Now, I'm not a he-man woman hater. After all, I liked Thatcher, and I'll support a good conservative female candidate if and when we ever have one. So, I wanted to know. I asked one of my liberal coworkers why he thought she was qualified to be our president. "Well, she was married to Bill," he said. How do you like that answer? As if he and Mr. Clinton are drinking buddies. "Bill." That's really all the answer I needed, but I asked again, "So you think that her being a former First Lady makes her the right choice?" He said that it does. Once again, proving our celebrity-minded culture, ladies and gentlemen, we're more interested in what's wrong with Brittney Spears than things that actually matter, because that's where he took the conversation next.
So Mr. Obama wants to be the first African American president, and Mrs. Clinton wants to be the first female president, and they both chose to campaign at the 42nd anniversary of a violent civil rights march. Yes, I said "campaign," and I meant it. Okay, fine. So what did they say about where they want to lead the nation in these precarious times? Absolutely nothing. What they did was ask, in a very transparent way, "Please vote for me, black people." Shameful, but hey, this is politics we're talking about, here, so what did you expect?
Look, I don't care what color or sex our next president will be, I just want someone who has the wisdom, experience, and dedication to be the leader we are going to need. I want substance in leadership. I want a president who will address the nation, our allies abroad, and our enemies with courage, to stand up in the world, not just stand out. Why? As I've said, I'm a simple man, so I'll keep my point simple, as well. Because Osama bin Laden doesn't care what color or sex our next president will be, either. He just wants us all dead.