A Woman in the White House in 2008

The 2008 U.S. Presidential election was one of the first times that a woman had openly run on the Democratic ticket, and although Hillery Clinton lost, it bears thought on what would have happened had a woman been elected

POD
Fiona Hartman, a middle-aged librarian from San Francisco decides to run for president as an independant. Running on a liberal, grassroots platform, she initially gained little attention, but the fact that she was the first openly homosexual canidate quickly gained her national attention. Within a few months she soundly defeats Clinton and runs neck-to-neck with Obama.

A month after defeating Hilery, Hartman defeats Obama and is elected as the 44th President of the United States, and the first female president in American history.

Upon her election, she offered the position of Vice President to Obama as a gesture of goodwill, Obama accepts and a new era for the nation is born

Diffrences between ATL and OTL
More to come...
 * With the first openly gay president in the OVal Office, gays rights achtivists gain new support, and soon same-sex marriage is legal in almost all fifty states
 * Being a librarian prior to her election, President Hartman pushed for a stronger focus on education, and soon a new education bill is passed, the Education for All Act grants all citizens an education up to a high school level free of charge and also mandates education up to a high school level
 * A pacifist by nature, President Hartman slices the defense budget, and declares that the U.S. should focus more on stopping conflcts before they start, not start them ourselves
 * Both President Hartman and Vice President Obama push for more employement options, eventually leading to the creation of a Job Corps, which would find any citizen a job if they want one, but also provide a minimum living wage and free housing to those that cannot or do not want a job