Barack Obama won because the young voted for a young candidates and older people did not vote for an older candidate. Barack Obama won because those considering themselves outsiders voted their ethnicity. Insiders did not. Barack Obama won because women do not vote their gender.

If the last elections proved anything, it is the veracity of a recent study (sorry, I have yet to find a link) that demonstrated that when racist attitudes are called to the attention of individuals they respond by changing them. The same does not happen with sexist attitudes.

In other words, I was wrong when I argued that McCain should chose a women vice president. Voters could be convinced to elect an affirmative action Black president but balked again at electing an affirmative action woman vice president. This does not mean that a woman cannot be elected president only that she cannot take any short cuts.

So what? Future tickets will include at least one"outsider" but not necessarily a woman. For this has been a year when women proved that dissing a female candidate, be she Hillary Clinton or Sarah Palin, carries no price.

Female solidarity? It has always been a mirage. In 1776 New Jersey revolutionaries gave single women the vote. They voted for the Federalists. In 1807 Republican Democrats took their votes away. They never made a peep. They did not get it back until 1919. In the meantime. consider this latest example of global sisterhood:"Get out of our lands so that we won't rape you" says Egyptian female lawyer to 50 million Arab TV viewers."

Man: Why have you called to do these things?

Woman: It's a form of resistance. I think all Arabs are allowed to hurt them (the Israelis). It's no shame...

Man: Why?

Woman: They (the Israelis) abuse the Arabs' rights and steal their lands, and a land thief is no different than he who hurts one's honor. I think it's a new kind of struggle.

Man: Does the license to hurt them also include rape?

Woman: No, sexual harassment... I want to say that they (Israeli women) have no right to react. That's my opinion. That's my claim. They (the Arabs) won't be the initiators, because those who bare the struggle have a high...