WASHINGTON—Indicating a major shift in public opinion from just a generation ago, a poll conducted by Gallup this week found that 74 percent of Americans would be comfortable blaming a female president for the problems facing the nation. “According to our latest survey, nearly three quarters of Americans now say they’d be willing to saddle a female president with blame for everything from a stagnant economy to interminable wars in the Middle East, up from barely half of respondents a decade earlier,” said lead researcher Jennifer Cervantes, emphasizing that while nine of every 10 voters under the age of 40 said they could see themselves condemning a woman president on nearly any issue, older voters—a demographic typically more opposed to vilifying a female commander-in-chief and angrily attributing America’s declining global influence and ballooning debt to her incompetence—were now becoming increasingly receptive to the possibility. “The change has been striking; for the first time in this nation’s history, we’re entering an election year in which a significant majority of voters say they can see themselves denouncing everything a female president does and accusing her of being the single worst thing that has ever happened to the country.” In a further sign of Americans’ evolving views, the study also found that 95 percent of Americans now believe they’ll bitterly abhor a female president in their lifetime.

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