The Nation: Madam President

The idea of a woman President has, until recently, always had the humor of improbability. When she was asked in 1952 what she would do if she were one day to wake up in the White House, Maine's Senator Margaret Chase Smith replied: "I'd go straight to Mrs. Truman and apologize. Then I'd go home." Hollywood thought the idea was cute. In 1964's Kisses for My President, Politician Polly Bergen is elected and then, domestically enough, has to resign when her husband, Fred MacMurray, gets her pregnant. Yuk yuk yuk.

Eleanor Roosevelt considered the...

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