EDITORIAL - The ascendancy of Democrats and women

The recently-held US midterm elections provided the world with at least two insights that are not very hard to miss. One is that most Americans now think the conduct of the war in Iraq is wrong. The other is that America could now be ripe for its first ever female president.

By voting out the Republicans and voting in the Democrats, Americans clearly showed they wanted major policy changes, especially in the Iraq war. For while most Americans, including the Democrats, initially went along with the war, they now have objections to how it is proceeding.

Their anxieties have not been helped by the fact that the original reason for going to war - weapons of mass destruction - have never been found, that they may have been duped by their president. Worse, the body count is escalating.

It is not clear, of course, if a split Senate and a House controlled by Democrats will spell any real difference in a war policy that is still strictly being formulated by you-know-who as commander-in-chief. What is unmistakable, though, is that what happened was a conscience vote.

The other insight that is not very hard to miss is the looming possibility of a shift in US political power to women. The election of Nancy Pelosi as first ever female Speaker and the landslide reelection victory of Hillary Clinton, at the very least, serves such notice.

Indeed the landslide win of Hillary is all the more significant considering that she is a major contender for her party's nomination for president. If she gets the nomination, the 2008 US presidential can be truly groundbreaking.

For looming large on the opposite side is Condoleezza Rice, that country's first ever female national security adviser and later secretary of state. With Bush not eligible for a new term and the Republicans " thumped " in last Tuesday's polls, the party may just turn to Condi.

If that happens, it will be an interesting America for all. And it will rile the enemy - Islamic terrorists who hate anything about America and who hate it even more when women are given positions of influence or power. That is unless Arnold Schwarzenegger spoils everything.