Argentinians voted in elections Sunday to choose Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, wife of outgoing president Nestor Kirchner, as the country's first elected woman president.

It was not Argentinians' first experience of having a female president nor of having the wife of a former president as head of state. When legendary political figure Gen. Juan Domingo Peron died in 1974, his third wife, Isabel Martinez de Peron, succeeded him to that office and occupied it for two years before Argentina's military overthrew her. She is now under house arrest in Spain, awaiting extradition to Argentina in connection with "forced disappearances" during her rule.

Contrary to what some Americans believe based on shows and movies and insufficient attention to Argentinian history, Evita -- Maria Eva Duarte de Peron, Mr. Peron's second wife -- was never president of Argentina. She was rejected by Argentina's leaders for the vice presidency and finally settled for the title "Spiritual Leader of the Nation."

Although Ms. Kirchner's political appeal derives primarily from her husband, who served a fairly successful four years as president, she (unlike Isabel and Evita) does bring considerable substance to the job. She is a lawyer, considered to be something of a policy wonk, was elected as a senator, and is expected to pursue the same policies Mr. Kirchner used to pull Argentina out of its 2001 financial tailspin. The primary challenges she will face as president are inflation and a possible energy crisis. She is expected to try to improve relations with the United States, which Mr. Kirchner did not put high on his list.

Ms. Kirchner's having joined Chile's president Michelle Bachelet in the hemisphere's presidential ranks, with her status as a former president's wife, lawyer and senator, has evoked comparisons with a U.S. Democratic candidate for her party's presidential nomination, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. Who knows?