BUENOS AIRES, Oct. 30 -- "Here in the land of machismo, where leaders were long supposed to conform to the standard of the strong-armed military man in epaulettes, a rising wave of leaders is working on a new 21st-century cliche: la presidenta (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/30/AR2007103002223.html?hpid=sec-world).

Like most of the region, both Chile and Argentina were ruled by military dictatorships in the 1970s and early 1980s. And as elsewhere on the continent, the politicians who subsequently ushered in democratic rule there failed to convince voters that they were making sufficient progress against problems such as poverty and social inequality.

"She is always saying that when she gets mad, people here in Chile say that she has a bad temper," Lagos said of Bachelet, "but when a man gets mad, they say he's a strong leader."

Fernandez de Kirchner is often compared to Clinton, another lawyer, senator and former first lady. During a television appearance with an interviewer after the election, she wished Clinton well on her campaign to acquire another title that Fernandez de Kirchner has now captured.

"Why not?" she said. "Another woman wouldn't be bad." <Especially when you consider The Alternative (http://www.theworriedshrimp.com//pinkhawks.jpg).>