ABC's Diane Sawyer Roots for Woman Prez, For A "Less Bellicose" World

ABC's Diane Sawyer is the cover girl of the April Ladies' Home Journal, and her interview with LHJ Editor Diane Salvatore has just a few tidbits for news junkies. When asked if she'll see a woman president in her lifetime, Sawyer answered, "Oh, absolutely. No question. I think something shifted. [What, the ABC drama Commander in Chief?] We don't see strength as exclusively masculine anymore. We don't see will as testosterone-laced. We see all of these characteristics in women."

But then it gets more political: "But I do think perhaps that people hope that women will do something about a war-torn world. Now, we don't know that women will be any more or less of anything in office. But I do think there's such a yearning for a less bellicose and territorial world." Here's some other Sawyer tidbits:

-- When asked if women are taken seriously as authority figures, Sawyer replied "I think we've really broken down a whole lot of the artificial barriers. Women can be seen as authoritative in news. There's nobody who has the power and credibility of Christiane Amanpour [of CNN] in a war zone."

-- Asked who she was still burning to interview, she said "I think everyone wants to know Camilla Parker Bowles better. And I am very intrigued by Kim Jong Il. He is on the top of my list." Geez. Is he just "intriguing"? How about evil? But Diane's squishy on that.

-- Asked 'How spiritual are you?' she answered with a New Agey spiel: "I don't know. [Huh?] I see my friends who really spend a lot of time on it. I don't spend a lot of my time. I love church on Sundays."

Salvatore followed up: "Do you go every Sunday?"

Sawyer replied: "Not every Sunday, but I go a lot of Sundays. I'm a searcher, and I read a lot about spiritual issues. I love the grappling. I think in that dialogue between doubt and faith, something beautiful happens."

Salvatore: "At the end of the day, do you believe in God?"

Sawyer: "Yes. There's a poem -- I think it's by Rilke -- that I love. That says, I believe in everything that has not been said. And it seems to me that that's what it is. The thing you can't diagram. But it is the God, the holiness within us and around us all, and the fact that we're certainly connected a level that transcends and keeps us looking up."

UPDATE: TV Newser enjoys another piece of the LHJ cover story.