October 4, 2008
Photo of Andrea McGimsey
Member of the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors
We traveled to Leesburg, Virignia to attend a Women's Forums sponsored by Loudoun County Women for Obama. Susan Eisenhower, granddaughter of President Dwight Eisenhower and lifelong Republican, addressed the crowd. She echoed her comments from the Democratic Convention that she spoke not as a Republican or a Democrat but as an American. She endorsed Senator Barack Obama for President.
"If John McCain was really a moderate, he would have chosen someone from my end of the Republican Party," she said, matter-of-factly, and then embarked on a detailed analysis of the defense budget and U.S. foreign policy. The Democratic women present had to wonder if they wouldn't be voting Republican if John McCain had chosen Susan Eisenhower to be his Vice President.
After the forum, we spoke to Andrea McGimsey, one of the newly-elected Democrats to the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors. Ms. McGimsey described her party's victory last November that resulted in five of the nine Board Members being Democrats. "We're turning the county blue," she said beaming. Not only that, she added cheerfully, but women from both parties now make up the majority of the board.
From Senator Hillary Clinton's groundbreaking bid for the Democratic nomination and Senator John McCain's selection of Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate to the legions of women joining state and county governing bodies, this has become another Year of the Woman. For a number of women, party allegiance comes first and foremost.
But there are women on both sides of the ever-deepening political divide who applaud the recognition of intelligent, accomplished, hard-working female politicians -- regardless of her party.
Maybe there will come a time when it is unremarkable to have a woman run for US president or vice president, but we're not there yet.
