Choice shouldn’t be about gender

??Do you often wonder how you really feel about Fred and Hillary? Thanks to polls and pundits aplenty, help is on the way.??The 2008 presidential general elections are roughly fifteen months away.??

The first primaries and caucuses are nearly six months out. Still, public opinion takers and makers are eager to tell us, right now, just what our views are.

At this point, pollsters and pundits confidently assure us, men are flocking to Fred and women are hopping to Hillary.??For example, Thompson, who hasn’t even declared yet, gets some 65 to 70 of his support from males.??Conversely, Hillary gets some 65 percent of her support from females.

So, say the media, ‘Thompson, Clinton face gender gap.’

I see two problems with the media’s gender gap assertion. First, it is way too early to make that call.?? Most Americans are focused on matters distinctly distant from politics, like making a living and coping with the challenges of daily life.??Sure, we are titillated by the prospect of ‘Mr. Law and Order’ actually running for president.??And the historic prospect of having Hillary as ‘Madam President’ brings both glee and gloom.??However, such considerations are, so far, mere blips on the radar screen of life.

Second, I have a visceral distrust of polls and pundits who stereotype how we feel, think and vote, based on gender.??So, I conducted my own informal opinion poll on the relative merits of Fred and Hillary as presidential material.??What I found was not even close to what the media would have us believe.

Of the 25 men I polled, 24 touted Thompson over Clinton.??No big surprise there, but get this: of the 25 women polled, only five said they would even consider voting for Hillary.??The other 20 voiced their reluctance to do so in varying degrees of concern ‘??ranging from doubt and distrust to outright disgust and disdain.??As for Fred, they seemed favorably inclined to voting for him ‘ if he runs and depending on who his opponents are.??So much for gender stereotypes.

The truth is ‘ in matters political and otherwise ‘ gender is just one of many factors that figure into our individual personalities. Our political views stem from a complex core of values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors that guide our opinions and our behaviors, including how we vote and for whom.??Moreover, we tend to be conservative on some issues, moderate on others, and liberal on still others.

The 2008 race for the White House is not about gender, but about overall candidate appeal. I believe Americans, male and female, will vote in 2008 for leaders they think they can trust to do what needs to be done, for us, not for them. Leadership and trust have long been two of the top three or four qualities most citizens look for in choosing our president.??

Both Hillary Clinton and Fred Thompson have positive and negative candidate appeal. If they wind up going toe-to-toe in the 2008 general elections, who would you trust to lead the nation?

Thomas B. Vaughn is an instructor at Motlow College and co-host of the radio show ‘Viewpoints,’ which airs on 91.3 FM.