For the last two years, I've been writing and telling anyone who would listen that American women could elect the next president, if only they voted.

Well, this time they did, and there is no doubt that women were a decisive factor in the election of Barack Obama.

To listen to the pundits, however, you'd think that only youth (bless them!) and minorities turned out in overwhelming numbers to stand on endless lines to elect the first African American and liberal and brilliant president.

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The last time Americans danced and cheered in the streets was in 1945, when the nation finally defeated its enemies in the Second World War. I have no memories of those exuberant days. But I'm an historian and I've seen plenty of pictures and read many descriptions of the joy and happiness that swept over the country.

Obama's stunning victory is the first time in 63 years that Americans once again danced and cheered in the street. Here on the Left Coast, thousands of Berkeley students danced in the city, wildly cheering his victory. In Oakland's Jack London Square and in San Francisco's Castro District, tens of thousands more gathered for joyous street parties, dancing in the street. It was a bittersweet victory because of the success of those who sought to ban same-sex marriage. That day, too, will come. Of this I'm sure.

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For months, women's groups across the country have been petitioning--practically begging--the moderators of the presidential debates to include questions that addressed, specifically, the problems that women face at work and in their families.

As early as August 14, 2008, The Women's Media Center in New York launched "Show Me the Women," an email petition campaign reminding all three moderators that women are part of the "diversity" of this country. Bob Shieffer even invited the WMC to offer questions. MomsRising.com, which emerged out of MoveOn.com, also launched an email campaign to persuade the moderators to include women's and family's issues in the debates.

Did it work? Not really.

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Astonishing. Women are more than half the population. Yet the vice-presidential debate, which featured a woman running for the VP, and moderated by a respected female journalist, barely even mentioned any of the issues that concern female voters.

Amazingly, it was Sarah Palin who uttered the words "women's rights" as part of her robotic explanation as to why the world doesn't like the United States. Sen. Joseph Biden, who authored the Violence Against Women Act, hardly took the time to stress the significance of what he had achieved.

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Many people are unfamiliar with Feminists for Life and wonder what the choice of Sarah Palin, who is against abortion rights, signals to the electorate.

Well, let me tell you something about Feminists for Life. In 2003, I decided to investigate this group and its energetic leader, Serrin Foster.
What did it mean, I wondered, to be a feminist and actively fight against the right to choose when or whether to have a child?

So I went to a church in sprawling, suburban, wealthy Danville, California to hear Serrin Foster, president of Feminists for Life, speak on "The Feminist Case Against Abortion"
to a huge crowd of mainly high-school students.

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I've never thought Sen. John McCain was mentally ill, not even after George W. Bush tried to discredit his intelligence and wit in 2000. But now I worry about the obvious deterioration of his health. Look back at clips from 2000 and you see a candidate who made the press swoon, so smitten were they with his sharp conversational skills, his quick wit, his charming accessibility.

Now I watch Sen. John McCain and I see the kind of change I witnessed in Ronald Reagan. As he entered his second term as President, I happened to be watching film clips of a younger and sharper Governor Ronald Reagan. The difference was staggering. Earlier, he had been a quick wit, fast on his feet, feisty as well as charming. By 1984, however, he seemed confused and distracted; I watched him with shock and saw an individual clearly slowed by the early signs of a terribly deteriorating disease.

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When I first heard about Scott McClellan's charges that the Bush administration had lied and deceived Americans during the months and years leading up to the war, I burst into tears of happiness. No, nothing he wrote was new. And even if he still seems like a sleazy public relations expert in obfuscation, an insider was finally telling the truth, in one book.

My story is different from those who felt seriously constrained about raising questions about the administration's obvious lies. I worked as an editorial writer at The San Francisco Chronicle, where a liberal editorial board raised serious objections to the war. And yet, in the years following 9/11, I felt editorial restraints that never allowed us to tell the whole truth about the lies and deception that led to America's most catastrophic foreign policy disaster.

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Four years ago, when Mayor Gavin Newsom began issuing marriage licenses for same sex marriages, I was still a political columnist at the San Francisco Chronicle. I rushed down to City Hall to bear witness to the historic events of those days. At the time, I thought Gavin Newsom would be remembered for his bold and courageous initiative. Some said to me, "But it's not a good time." I responded, "It's never a good time to deny others the rights you already have."

Already, there are those who are preparing for a referendum for the November ballot that would ban same sex marriages in the California Constitution. But before we lose the joyous celebration of an expanded democracy, I'd like to recall what happened four years ago. Here, from 2004, is what I witnessed--one of the most joyous historic events in my life.

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Many people remember the courageous civil rights activists who in the early 1960s risked their lives to challenge Jim Crow laws by riding racially integrated buses into the South. But few people know that southern universities expelled dozens of these young people for participating in what are now remembered as the "Freedom Rides."

To atone for these politically motivated expulsions, which denied activists their college degrees, at least six southern universities have granted former activists honorary degrees. Having denied these young people the opportunity of an education, it was the least they could do.

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"I think it would be a great thing if we had an election between two people who loved this country and were devoted to the interests of the country and people could actually ask themselves who is right on the issues, instead of all this other stuff that always seems to intrude itself on our politics."

These words, uttered by former President Bill Clinton last Friday, did not refer to his wife and Senator Barack Obama. No, he meant Senators Hillary Clinton and John McCain, whom he has recently described in glowing terms as a bipartisan politician, a war hero, and a tough general election foe.

Some have said that the former President is not questioning Obama’s patriotism, but those are the same people whose job is 24/7 damage control. Let’s not kid ourselves. Bill Clinton is playing the McCarthy card, one that has worked wonders in the past as it destroyed people and their political ambitions. He is also playing the race card, now coded as “all this other stuff.”

And what makes Obama so unpatriotic?

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After five years of watching "The Wire," I confess to a fear of experiencing withdrawal symptoms. The series ended as it began, with a scathing expose of the corruption that exists among drug dealers, and inside the police department, the school system, local politics and the newsroom. With Dickensian detail, the series portrayed why the few who seek social justice and transparency will always be discredited by those who lust after greed and power and why those who ask what is fair will always be destroyed by those who crave dominance over others.

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Although I have supported Barack Obama in the primaries, I would not be devastated if Hillary Clinton should turn out to be the Democratic nominee. What does upset me, however, is how Clinton is employing the politics of fear and how much she emphasizes national security in order to mobilize support for her campaign.

The politics of fear worked wonders for Bush and Cheney. I'm genuinely saddened that Hillary Clinton would reach out to tell us, "be afraid, very afraid." Her ads warn us about our children's 'safety at 3 am in the morning and do nothing more than employ the politics of fear. Her relentless assertion that only she will be a strong commander-in-chief makes my blood boil. In response, Barack Obama must rejoin her attacks and convince us that he, too, would be a fine commander who can deal with crises and war.

Excuse me, but is this what we want from Democrats? Fear mongering? Haven't we had enough from the Bush administration?

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Let us pause, for a moment, to remember that one of the great activists of the 20th century died on February 27th, of lung cancer, leaving behind a legacy of critical challenges to the medical and pharmaceutical industries. Though many people may not know her work--because she was blacklisted from so many newspapers and magazines for her crusading muckraking---all of us owe enormous gratitude for her relentless pursuit of the truth.

I have suggested elsewhere that the women's health movement was arguably the greatest accomplishment of the modern women's movement. If I am right, then Barbara Seaman was also one of the most important activists and journalists who challenged the over-medicalization of women's lives.

Fiercely skeptical, Barbara Seaman early warned women about the dangers of the birth control pill in her controversial book "The Doctor's Case Against the Pill" in 1969. As a result of her pioneering work and the hearings that followed in the wake of its publication, strengthened warnings appeared on birth control packages.

She never stopped.

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Sen. John McCain has a woman problem. As many people remember, a supporter asked him last November "how are we going to beat that bitch?" His response, after a good old boy's chuckle, was "That's an excellent question." He then went on to discuss his superior poll ratings and ended with a dutiful statement about how much he respected Sen. Hillary Clinton.

McCain's out-of-control sexism is hardly new. In 1998, he made David Shuster seem positively tame. At a Republican fund-raiser, he jokingly asked "Why Chelsea Clinton is so ugly." His answer was that "Janet Reno was the father."

Surely, I need not spell out the implications.

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The good news in this campaign is that most Americans, including pundits and political analysts, seem to feel it is socially unacceptable to use overtly racist stereotypes or innuendo against Barack Obama. Though I still believe that racism is pandemic in American society, people appear to keep their beliefs and feelings about the color of Barack Obama's skin to themselves. At least, so far.

Restraint against making sexist comments, by contrast, is not yet apparent. Fortunately, the outcry from both men and women has been loud enough to force Chris Mathews to apologize for implying that Clinton would never be a candidate if her husband hadn't messed around in the White House. I'm also delighted that MSNBC's David Shuster has both apologized and been suspended for asking a guest if Chelsea Clinton was "being pimped out in some weird sort of way" by the Clinton campaign?

These are only two of a long list of sexist comments noted by Media Matters, feminist scholars and activists across the country. This list would bore you.

But the one moment that sill sticks in my throat happened quite a while ago. On November 12, 2007, a McCain supporter asked, "How do we beat the bitch?" Laughter erupted among the crowd and McCain joined in. After a few moments, he replied, "That is an excellent question." Then, he went on to say that he respected Senator Clinton.

Oh really?

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