When will the first female U.S. President be elected?

[BM]

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Well Sebelius and Napolitano aren't running for office in their states any time soon.  Napolitano is probably too brash and too "not married" and Sebelius is probably too boring to become president anyway.  They both seem promising on paper but I can't seem them rallying an entire nation behind them.  The same goes for Klobuchar, who I like but she's certainly not making a name for herself.  I don't know much about Lincoln and don't think I've ever even heard her speak.  Gillibrand...we'll see.

A Governor Herseth-Sandlin is probably the best prospect of the people you mentioned, but it'd be hard coming from such a small state that most of the nation doesn't care about.  She'd have to really get her voice out there somehow.  She could eventually become a hot commodity as running mate, which would obviously help launch her on to the national stage.

[Mechaman]

Most likely either 2016 or 2020. One or both of the parties will start running women to get people more involved in the political process. It worked last year with Obama (apparently he's "black", I had no idea) and Palin. Now I know this can have a backfire effect, but people are pretty intrigued when it comes to novelty in elections. I think there were more people excited about electing someone who wasn't more than 50% white than those who weren't. I think this same mentality is likely to form in 2016 or 2020.
Hopefully after that happens people will stop thinking about race or sex (both pro and con) and more about electing people based on their record, political ideas, etc. rather than "how fast does he sunburn" or "does she cry during chick flicks?"

[big bad fab]

2016: Michelle Obama (a la Kirchner !)
2020: Lynn Cheney (first gay female)
2024: Meghan McCain (Lynn Cheney doesn't run again)
2028 and 2032: Chelsea Clinton (Hillary avenged)

[BM]

Mary Cheney is the gay one.  Lynn is his wife and Liz is the daughter going on all the talk shows to defend the use of waterboarding, and quite well I might add even though I disagree with her.  She's the one I could see running for office someday.

[??????????]

Chastity Bono.

[justfollowingtheelections]

Lisa Madigan in 2016.

[phk]

HRC in '16 is the biggest possibility atm.

[justfollowingtheelections]

HRC in '16 is the biggest possibility atm.

I don't think she will run

[Badger]

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Well Sebelius and Napolitano aren't running for office in their states any time soon.  Napolitano is probably too brash and too "not married" and Sebelius is probably too boring to become president anyway.  They both seem promising on paper but I can't seem them rallying an entire nation behind them. 

Agree. Just throwing their names out there as an admitted stretch.

A Governor Herseth-Sandlin is probably the best prospect of the people you mentioned, but it'd be hard coming from such a small state that most of the nation doesn't care about. 

Like Arkansas? ;-)

[bhouston79]

2020 - Susan Collins (R - ME).  She will run as a moderate and win the RNC nomination after the RNC figures out that they can't win elections with a coalition consisting of only approximately 25% of all americans.  (i.e. the DNC nominating Bill Clinton after nominating two liberals in the previous two elections)  The Republicans will run a "Northeast strategy" and Collins will choose Connecticut Senator (she will run for Senate after her term as Governor is complete), Jodi Rell as her VP.  It will be the first all female ticket in U.S. history.  These moderates will break the DNC's stranglehold on the Northeast (much the way Bill Clinton did in the South in 1992), and they will win Maine, New Hampshire, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.  Their status as moderates will also help them win some other swing states.  The following will be the map on election night:

[LastMcGovernite]

There's two people we are overlooking-

Sarah Steelman among Republicans and Stephanie Sandlin among the Democrats. 

And when might their day in the sun be?  2016?  2020?

[pbrower2a]

Barack Obama has blasted open the glass ceiling for non-WASPs (Kennedy was barely elected and is the most un-traditional President in origin that we had ever had) and females. People who can vote for Obama can vote for females, Hispanics, Jews, Asians, and persons of East and South European origin.

2016? Hardly out of the question.   

[ej2mm15]

Hopefully, 2012 will go to a republican ticket and so will 2016. The Hillary will win in 2020.

If you tell me it'll happen in 3 years.... >.<


.............*facepalm*

[JSojourner]

Lol, I love Jennifer Granholm but that eint  happening, because it would be illegal. 

Yeah, she has certainly done wonders for the economy in Michigan, a shining example of what the whole US needs to do!

The Republicans would need to nominate a moderate such as Susan Collins or Olympia Snowe but they are both pro-choice and pro-gay rights so that automatically eliminates them from getting the nomination.

And Democrats need to only nominate moderates like Evan Bayh, Joe Lieberman, Ben Nelson and Zell Miller.

Lieberman a moderate ? Lieberman is a conservative who has nothing to do in the democratic party.

He's economically liberal.

Lieberman is liberal in most respects.  I am not sure about the second amendment.  I know he has a soundly liberal record on the environment.  And I know, when he was the Vice-Presidential nominee in 2000, the sudden mantra from the extreme right was..."Oh Noez!  A knee-jerk New England liberal!"

His unflagging (sometimes to a fault) support for Israel is hardly the exclusive propriety of either the right or the left.

So I have to agree with States.  And as angry as I am at Lieberman for some of the stunts he pulled during the campaign, I don't want him drummed out of our party unless he wants to go.  In fact, the only one I'd like to see forced out (though that's really impossible because he holds no office) is Zell Miller.  And that's because Miller has been, for years, unable to articulate a single thing he agrees with Democrats on or disagrees with Republicans on.  Lieberman can easily, and with integrity, do both.

[zclark1994]

I would honestly like to see Susan Collins go for 2016 or 2020.  I don't know about 2012 though, as Obama will be up for re-election.  Depending on how Obama is doing it might be better to have Mitt take the fall in 2012.  And in the case that he wins, thats still ok for me.

[HAnnA MArin County]

The fact that all the GOP women in the Senate are pro-choice would make it extremely difficult for them to get the Republican nomination. They will probably pull a Romney move and say they are now pro-life when/if they run for higher office. The Base will be in shambles if they have to swallow the fact of possibly electing a woman who supports infanticide and "special rights" for homosexuals. Unfortunately for the Republicans but fortunately for Democrats, Bailin' Palin is the best female candidate the GOP has. She fires up the base but is so inexperienced and dimwitted on political issues that I'm sure a high school senior class president who ran as a Democrat could easily defeat her on the national level. For those reasons, I don't see the GOP being the party that shatters the glass ceiling, so let's turn to the party that will.

Obviously, my girl Hillary is the top-tier one but I doubt she will run in 2016 unless Obama implodes in 2012 and Republicans take back the White House and then you have a Bush-like scenario where Democrats regain the momentum going into 2016. Someone on here mentioned Democrat fatigue. That may be true. We get tired of one party then go to the next until they screw up or we're tired of them then we go back to Square One. Disregarding Hillary, I'd say Democrats have a plethora of potential female candidates - all the Senators, some House members, Obama cabinet secretaries (Sebelius, Napolitano, etc.). Some rising female stars in the party in the House like Stephanie Herseth Sandlin and Gabrielle Giffords are both young and could ignite the youth vote, which seems to be a growing and reliable bloc for Democrats, and Giffords is a Jew so we could elect the first female AND the first Jewish president.

But I do agree - I think 2016 will be the year in which we may see that glass ceiling shattered. Hopefully it will be Hillary, but if not, at least it will be historic.

[Psychic Octopus]

2020+, HRC is done. Palin is done. Will have to wait for others to emerge.

[Jacobtm]

Consider that before 2004 Obama was a nobody. Before 2006, Palin was a nobody.

Point being, people can become presidential contenders in as little as 2-4 years these days, so who knows what might happen by 2016.

Admittedly, one in 2012 seems unlikely, but we really can't tell.

[Psychic Octopus]

2020+, HRC is done. Palin is done. Will have to wait for others to emerge.

Not sure either of them are done really.  They're each one of the two most popular choices within their party for president.  I wouldn't be all that shocked to see both nominated for president.

Perhaps. But I think both have too much baggage. Palin has all that stuff last year and Hillary has... Bill.

[Person Man]

This answer is pretty easy. When you stop touching yourself....so uh....never?

Seriously though, there are some very bright young women in both parties that are probably just waiting in the wings at the moment. Kristen Gilibrand, Stephanie Sandlin....maybe even Machelle Bachman (she's too conservative right now, but if this country continues to push to the right in the long term...well, I don't know if the country could actually survive being conservative enough to vote for Bachman...but the same was said about Reagan...and I guess Germany was doing alright in 1938).