In an era of fundamental change in politics, we’d like to see California shatter the glass ceiling by electing a woman governor.

That would require women candidates from both parties and voters seem to want Democratic U.S. Sen. Diane Feinstein and former e-Bay Chief Executive Officer Meg Whitman, a Republican, to face off in 2010.

That’s an unlikely scenario given that Feinstein seems determined to make her mark in the Senate, where she holds down influential committee assignments and serves as an anchor for moderates in a senate that may have a fillibuster-proof majority.

Still, a moderate, pro-business governor is needed to break the deadlock on the state’s fiscal mess. Hiring a woman to do a job that so far has eluded the man known as the Terminator, strikes us as a very sound idea.