Nonsense. Obama is not the first gay president. He is the first female president.

But Romney was cagey about what, exactly, that would mean: His only specific prediction was that Obama would “remake” the Supreme Court. So it was helpful when, at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner a week ago, the president opened up about the “secret agenda” he has planned. “In my first term,” he joked, “we ended the war in Iraq; in my second term, I will win the war on Christmas. . . . In my first term, we passed health-care reform; in my second term, I guess I’ll pass it again.”

That’s the pitch we’ve made for more than four decades at the Center for American Women and Politics, asking women from both parties to consider running for office. We have a simple, logical progression in mind: Women who see a policy or situation that raises their ire should channel their energy into candidacies, which would lead to more women in office. Now the 2012 campaign season, with its attacks on access to contraception and its dismal economic climate, has added urgency to the message.