Madame President? Review of two new Hillary & Condi books

Journalist, author and professor Steve Roberts (husband of Cokie) reviews Susan (bleh) Estrich's book, The Case for Hillary and Dick (double, no triple yuk) Morris' book CONDI VS. HILLARY: The Next Great Presidential Race in the 11/27/05 issue of Book World.

Estrich also stated her case (unconvincingly) online in the WaPo Book World Live discussion today. Most of the posters / questioners showed far more pragmatism than Estrich (hey I mostly like HRC, but no way in hell she does anything but unite the vitriol of the right-wing red-staters to get another RepugnaCon elected prez in 08!). Meanwhile, Roberts gets this exactly right about both Estrich and Morris:

Estrich and Morris are both former Democratic strategists who appear regularly on Fox News, and at times they indulge in the cartoonish blather that replaces serious conversation on many cable outlets. ...

These authors share another trait common to cable commentators: relentless self-promotion.

The review is mostly on track (great virtues of idealism, little reality of it happening with either Hillary or Condi), but while he acknowledges the still-present reality of sexism (without actually mentioning the word), he never grapples with the deeply embedded and also present racism which is still very much a defining part of our culture.

And although Roberts concludes that "the odds strongly favor a candidate other than Clinton or Rice. And that's too bad. Liberia just elected a woman president, for goodness sake, and it's long past time for the United States to do the same," he doesn't acknowledge that most likely the only way (IMHO) for Hillary to win in 2008 would be if Condi (or another person of color, particularly of African descent) heads the Republican ticket. That's because (while unspoken, it doesn't even take the awful, recent memories of hurricane Katrina -- just honesty -- to know that for the most part) racism still trumps sexism in the good ole US of A, especially for something as emotional as presidential elections.