Rags to Riches wins battle of the sexes—but can Clinton?

by David Grand
July 4, 2007

That filly  was entitled to give the six colts in the Belmont Stakes, the third jewel in the Triple Crown, the horse laugh for her stellar victory. For not since that nationally televised tennis match between the flamboyant, chauvinistic Bobby Riggs and Billy Jean King in 1973 can I recall another more eagerly anticipated battle of the sexes.

The choreography preceding the match--with King entering the arena in Cleopatra style, carried aloft in a chair held by four bare-chested muscle men dressed in garbs of ancient slaves, and with Riggs following in a rickshaw drawn by a bevy of gorgeous scantily-clad models--was more spectacular than the match itself, in which she beat him handily.

Now, whether or not Hillary Clinton can likewise turn the tables on her male adversaries in the run for the White House is problematical and too early for the Las Vegas odds-makers to give out odds.

One thing for sure, however, is that most women are solidly behind her and will flock to the polls in record numbers, exceeding the 61 percentage of women who voted in the 2004 election.

For six decades after women obtained the right to vote in 1920, they voted at lower rates than men. But that gender gap closed in the 1980 election; and in subsequent elections, women have voted at an increasingly higher rate than men.

Not surprisingly, unmarried women vote at a lower rate and tend to be more liberal in their political preferences than married women, especially after they have children.

So, let's face it men. We're outnumbered and it's the women who'll decide the outcome of the 2008 election. And woe betide the man who tries to influence his wife's vote or goes against his parent's choices. He could end up doing his own laundry and eating in the kitchen alone at holiday dinners.

To end on a lighter note, here's a few of my favorite quotes about the fairer sex:

• By the time a man can read a woman like a book, he needs bifocals.
• Naturally women live longer than men--look how long they remain girls.
• What passes for woman's intuition is nothing more than man's transparency.
• A beautiful lady is an accident of nature; a beautiful old lady is a work of art.
• It's better to dwell in the corner of a housetop, than with a brawling woman in a wide house. (Proverbs 21:9)
• There is no fouler fiend than a woman whose mind is bent to evil." (Homer)