Jane Doe For President?

Tennessee Rep. Marsha Blackburn, a Republican, was the featured speaker at an event Thursday night asking "Is America Ready for a Woman President?" at the National Press Club. The event was hosted by the Women Under Forty Political Action Committee (more affectionately known as WUFPAC) -- a bipartisan, non-issue PAC that seeks to involve more younger women in the political process.

Blackburn did her best Elizabeth Dole impression, taking the handheld microphone and joking, "When you're so short, you just can't sit down" as she walked around what little space she had to work with. The 54-year-old congresswoman explained why she's a non-traditional politician and waxed philosophical on leadership.

She told the predominantly female audience that she never emphasized her gender in her first congressional race in 2002 because as the only Republican woman in the state Senate, she was "a caucus of one." Blackburn also furnished an animated anecdote about a man who questioned her with, "Little lady, what qualifies you to run for the United States House of Representatives?" She later told him when he asked what to call her if she was elected that "congressman will be just fine."

When asked if she thought a Republican woman would make it to the White House before a Democratic woman, in answering the question, she very eloquently did not answer the question and instead offered her thoughts on civil discourse and example-setting.

Immediately following was by a panel discussion moderated by former CNN anchor Sonia Ruseler and featuring DNC communications director Karen Finney, Council of Women World Leaders Secretary General Laura Liswood and The Cook Political Report's Jennifer Duffy. [ERIN McPIKE]