As Ann and Jessica say, the amount of male gender-card-playing in our political culture is ridiculous. At its worst, debates over issues like the use of military force become little more than opportunities for subtextual dick-size contests. This would just be really annoying, if it didn't get people killed.
The more general problem is that our elections are largely about projecting an arbitrary set of stereotypes. You want to look like someone with rural or small-town origins, not a big-city upbringing. You don't want to seem wealthy or intellectual. The gender card comes from a large deck. That elections are often decided this way, and not on policy issues, might be the great lament of this blog if it weren't something that we're resigned to dealing with. Bush won elections largely because his handlers knew how to make him project the right stereotypes -- often ones that didn't fit his actual background in the least.
