USATODAY.com - Call her Madame President

USATODAY.com - Call her Madame President: "Call her Madame President
By Susan Page, USA TODAY
It's settled: A woman can be president.
The accidental president: Geena Davis portrays Vice President Mackenzie Allen, a mother of three who is thrust into a new role on Commander in Chief.
ABC

In Hollywood.

President Mackenzie Allen in the first two episodes of ABC's Commander in Chief already has taken the oath of office, addressed a joint session of Congress, launched a military rescue operation and foiled the machinations of the scheming House speaker, all the while conveying the cool glamour of, well, Geena Davis.

Her Gallup Poll ratings — make that the Nielsens — are doing well, too. The series is the most-watched new show this season.

Female politicians on the other coast are having a tougher time, though. Two decades after Geraldine Ferraro seemed to break the glass ceiling in American politics, no woman has been nominated or even seriously competed for national office.

'I was one of the big mouths who said, '(Political) tickets will never look the same again,' ' says Pat Schroeder, a former Colorado congresswoman who ran for president two years after Ferraro was nominated for vice president in 1984. 'And guess what? They went right back to looking the same.'"