The health-care bill passed because Pres. Barack Obama rolled up his sleeves and fought for it like only a man can fight. The whole thing was directly tied to to the fact that he’s a male provider — a husband and father who knows what families need. Besides, building political consensus is a natural male activity. This could only have happened in a country that chooses men as presidents, election after election.
What, you think that’s a preposterous political analysis? Well, it’s what passes for thinking among Washington Post editors. Over the weekend, one of them, Vince Bzdek, announced that the bill passed because Nancy Pelosi is a girl:
The overhaul happened because Nancy Pelosi wanted it to happen, deep in her DNA. . . . The tenacity with which she fought for health-care reform is directly tied to her gender. . . . When Pelosi made expanding health care one of her top priorities, friends and colleagues say it was, without question, because she is a woman and a mother. . . . Pelosi said her fellow “caregivers” had a lot invested in reform, since they are the ones who provide most of the health care for their families and are acutely aware of problems in the system. . . . Some say that consensus-building approach to leadership comes more naturally to women. . . . It’s probably no coincidence that the United States, the last of the world’s industrialized countries to adopt a comprehensive health-care blueprint, also ranks at the bottom among those countries in the gender equity of its political bodies.