DUmmies are obsessed with symbolism and to them the chance of the first woman Vice President having an (R) pushes them to a new level of insane hysterics.
The problem with that is that Democrats have very few "firsts."
The first black U.S. Senator was a Republican, during the 1870s.
The first U.S. Senator of Chinese derivation was a Republican.
The first female U.S. Congressman was a Republican, from Montana, and elected even before women had the right to vote.
And so on and on and on.
During the 1960s, there was a time when the U.S. Senate consisted of 97 WASPs, one female, one black, and one of Chinese derivation.
Margaret Chase Smith (R-Maine), Edward Brooke (R-Massachusetts), and Hiram Fong (R-Hawaii).
The first female U.S. Senator, to be honest, was a woman, Rebecca Felton (D-Georgia), in the early 1920s, but that was a one-day appointment, and she was, like, 88 years old. The first female U.S. Senator elected in her own right was Harriet Caraway (D-Arkansas), some time in the early 1930s, but she wasn't anybody the primitives would like. The first female governor of a state was Nellie Tayloe Ross (the mid-1920s, I think) (D-Wyoming)--but then and again, here was someone the primitives wouldn't like either.
It doesn't surprise me that the Republicans are going to have the first female vice-president, not at all.
And probably the first black president, sometime.
It's probably not going to happen, but I'd like John McCain to announce that Condaleeza Rice is continuing on as U.S. Secretary of State after January 20, 2009--but I'm guessing she wouldn't be too enthusiastic about doing that. Dealing with obstructors and destructors can get wearying after a while.