Marc Rudov on "the downside" of a woman president: "You mean besides the PMS and the mood swings, right?"

Summary: During a segment of The O'Reilly Factor to discuss "What is the downside of having a woman become the president of the United States?" author Marc Rudov's initial response to the question was, "You mean besides the PMS and the mood swings, right?" Rudov later asserted: "Well, you know, I'm joking. Of course, the main problem I have is if a woman has a female agenda."

During the March 10 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, Bill O'Reilly hosted Marc Rudov, author of Under the Clitoral Hood: How to Crank Her Engine Without Cash, Booze, or Jumper Cables, to discuss "What is the downside of having a woman become the president of the United States?" Rudov's initial response to the question was, "You mean besides the PMS and the mood swings, right?" O'Reilly responded: "But guys have mood swings, Marc. And you know they have other control issues, as we just heard with [New York] Governor [Eliot] Spitzer and we saw with various presidents. So come on now, let's be fair." Rudov then asserted: "Well, you know, I'm joking. Of course, the main problem I have is if a woman has a female agenda. If she doesn't have a female agenda, if she just wants to be an executive for all the people, then all I care about is if she's qualified. And I have no qualms about having a female president. But if we take [Sen.] Hillary Clinton, she specifically does have a female agenda." Rudov later added: "But Hillary embodies the female agenda. She wants to be the feminist in chief. She represents women. It says so on her website. And a lot of women are voting for her because she's a woman." O'Reilly hosted Rudov and Republican strategist Margaret Hoover as part of a new segment called "He Said, She Said," in which O'Reilly and his guests will "deal with issues from a gender-based point of view."

Also during the segment, O'Reilly asked Hoover: "So it would be OK with you if a woman was elected president and then tilted her policies toward women? It would be all right with you?" Hoover replied, "Absolutely not, because you're gonna be president of the United States. You're president of women and men, African-Americans, Hispanics, everybody. So you don't run with identity politics. You don't run as a woman only representing a -- women." O'Reilly then stated, "But she -- but Hillary Clinton is."

As Media Matters for America has documented, on the January 4 edition of Fox News' Your World with Neil Cavuto, Rudov stated: "When Barack Obama speaks, men hear, 'Take off for the future.' And when Hillary Clinton speaks, men hear, 'Take out the garbage.' " Rudov also described Clinton during that program as "nagging" and "shrill."

From the March 10 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor:

O'REILLY: Tonight, we begin a brand new segment called, "He Said, She Said," where we'll deal with issues from a gender-based point of view. The segment will run every Friday, but we wanted to debut it tonight with a very provocative question: What is the downside of having a woman become president of the United States? Recent CNN poll asked do you think America's ready for a woman president? Sixty-five percent said yes; 34 percent said no; 1 percent apparently didn't understand the question.

With us now, Republican strategist and feminist Margaret Hoover. And from San Francisco, Marc Rudov, author of the book A Man's No-Nonsense Guide to Women. Oh, I got to get that.

All right, Marc, now Hillary Clinton obviously in play. And we understand that you reference her. But this is a broader-based discussion about -- you get a woman in the Oval Office, the most powerful person in the world, what's the downside?

RUDOV: You mean besides the PMS and the mood swings, right?

O'REILLY: But guys have mood swings, Marc. And you know --

RUDOV: Right.

O'REILLY: -- they have other control issues, as we just heard with Governor Spitzer and we saw with various presidents. So come on now, let's be fair.

RUDOV: Well, you know, I'm joking. Of course, the main problem I have is if a woman has a female agenda. If she doesn't have a female agenda, if she just wants to be an executive for all the people, then all I care about is if she's qualified. And I have no qualms about having a female president.

But if we take Hillary Clinton, she specifically does have a female agenda. All you have to do is look at her website.

Now let's go back a couple of months to around January 11th, where she was campaigning in Las Vegas. And a man from the crowd, and this is -- you can check this out on the Internet. A man from the crowd yelled out, "Please help me, my wife is an illegal."

And her response was, "No woman is an illegal." And that's exactly what I mean by a female agenda.

Now, men, as you know, have lost a lot of rights in this country. We saw last year at Duke University, three boys were falsely accused of rape. And absolutely nothing happened to Crystal Gail Mangum, who accused them of that. Not one politician stood up to say, "That's never going to happen on my watch." And so I fault the males as well.

But Hillary embodies the female agenda. She wants to be the feminist in chief. She represents women. It says so on her website. And a lot of women are voting for her because she's a woman.

O'REILLY: All right, so --

RUDOV: Contrast that with Barack Obama --

O'REILLY: Let me -- I want to get Margaret in here. OK, so as long as the woman, as you put it, doesn't have a female agenda when she gets power, it's OK. You say?

HOOVER: I say there is absolutely no problem with a woman being president of the United States.

O'REILLY: Even if they have a female agenda?

HOOVER: There's no problem with a woman being president of the United States if you take her gender as a sole issue. Gender shouldn't matter. As we all know, there have been fabulous women chief executives. Margaret Thatcher, Golda Meir. This may be America's opportunity. I certainly hope not, because I don't agree with Hillary Clinton's policies. But this isn't gonna be a gender issue. And that's what we've see. We've seen Barack Obama --

O'REILLY: But various people, various politicians have various points of view. You would see that. Men, women, it doesn't matter, right?

HOOVER: Sure.

O'REILLY: OK. Marc is saying that Hillary Clinton is coming at it, raising the gender issue. And she, he thinks, is going to govern in that way.

HOOVER: I'm unclear as a senator that she's governed in that way. But she has certainly brought women's issues to light in a way that maybe a male senator from New York might not have.

And I think that that's OK. People represent their constituencies and have particular interests, based on who they are and the experiences that have formed them. You don't have to be a child to be an advocate for children. You don't have to be a woman to be an advocate for women. You don't have to be Hispanic to be an advocate for Hispanics.

O'REILLY: So it would be OK with you if a woman was elected president and then tilted her policies toward women? It would be all right with you?

HOOVER: Absolutely not, because you're gonna be president of the United States. You're president of women and men, African-Americans, Hispanics, everybody. So you don't run with identity politics. You don't run as a woman only representing a -- women.

O'REILLY: But she -- but Hillary Clinton is.

HOOVER: I think she does indulge in identity politics and she uses it as her victimization card, which is unattractive, which is partly why I hope she's not elected.

O'REILLY: All right. Now, Marc, if you had what you consider to be a straight-down-the-line female president with no agenda, basically looking out for the folks and looking at every issue in an objective way, then you have no problem with a female as president?

RUDOV: No, I don't. As long as she's qualified. Absolutely not.

O'REILLY: Now, qualified to you means what?

RUDOV: It means she has executive experience. And frankly, I don't think being in the Senate is executive experience.

O'REILLY: So she'd have to be a governor?

RUDOV: Well, yeah. A governor who has run something, who's been responsible for a budget, who has had bicameral experience dealing with both sides of the aisle, who's actually been responsible for helping the people of a state. But again, profit and loss responsibility.

O'REILLY: All right, so I'm getting either a governor or a CEO of a major company. I'm gonna give Margaret the last word.

HOOVER: Bottom line is, Bill, what this debate shows is that gender isn't a defining issue in our country. That's how far the women's movement has come, that suddenly we're talking about this. And really, she's an individual running against other individuals --

O'REILLY: But you know some people are gonna vote -- some women are gonna vote for Hillary 'cause she's a woman.

HOOVER: And some blacks are gonna vote for Barack Obama 'cause he's black.

O'REILLY: Right.

HOOVER: And some white guys are gonna vote for John McCain 'cause he's an old white guy. But you know what? That's not the defining issue for the majority of Americans when they go to the polls in November.

O'REILLY: All right. "He Said, She Said," everybody. They're gonna be back on Friday. And we appreciate it very much.

—A.I.