I can't let a Clinton compliment go unchallenged so let me say I don't think Hillary is the trailblazer everyone claims she is. Nancy Pelosi is Speaker of the House, there are 16 female Senators, there are 8 female Governors, there have been numerous female cabinet members, there was a female VP nominee.
Does anyone think a woman can't be elected President of the United States in 2008? I sure don't. If Condoleeza Rice ran for the R nomination for Prez, my guess is she would have done as well or better than Clinton did.
I just don't think Clinton is any kind of trailblazer. She is walking the path that many many women before her created.
I love your first line 'can't let a Hillary comment go unchallenged'
But my point is that NONE of these other women have put themselves quite in the firing line like Hillary has. It has to be credited as an achievement.
I lived for 11 years under Thatcher's prime ministership here. I detested virtually everthing she stood for, politically. But I do recognise she was a trail blazer and an amazing woman.
Hillary is a very good politician. I don't think anyone can argue otherwise. She certianly did put herself in the firing line. I give her credit for that.
The problem I have with giving her the trailblazer moniker is that I don't think she deserves it. By the same token I don't think Obama deserves the trailblazer moniker either. If this were 1972 neither of them would have had a showball's chance in Hell of winning the WH. A lot of people blazed a trail for Hillary and Obama in order to make it a possibility that a woman or an AA man could win the WH in 2008.
I enjoyed your diary.
Still I beg to disagree on Thatcher. To me she was horrible as a human being. For one thing, she ruthlessly ordered the Belgrano to be sunk, which cost, if I remember rightly, nearly 2000 human lives.
Can one be horrible as a human being and amazing as a woman? (Unless on is an amazingly horrible woman...)
What does 'amazing woman' mean, actually?
All I have on this is the Wikipedia article but it looks like it was 323 people. I know that doesn't change your point.
You're right! I didn't remember rightly. There's no reason not to trust the Wikipedia article. Apparently there were about 1100 people ("Argies") on board when it sank, but more than 700 were rescued by Argentinian and Chilean ships.
Still as you say it doesn't change my point, which was, crudely speaking, that a female bastard is not worth more than a male bastard... (irrespective of whether you agree with me or not that sinking the Belgrano was a bastardly deed; and by the way we Frenchmen have not much reason to be proud that a French missile sank the Sheffield).
Point taken.
The Belgrano thing was horrible, but surely that was her acting as a politician. I don't think you can say she was a horrible human being as a result. The context is different, but was Truman a 'horrible human being' for ordering Nagasaki and Hiroshima? I don't think politics quite works this way, and things like 'perceived national interest' the 'safety of our troops' also weighs heavily. The personal isn't always political, and vice versa.
I think it would be hard to say that Thatcher set no example, blazed no trail - though she was very unfriendly to female competitors and promoted many fewer of them in her cabinet than her predecessors, or successors.
But there were things to be admired about her. The only one I can think of, apart from her symbolic role, is that she got Bosnia dead right, and proposed lifting the arms embargo and striking serb heavy weapons from 1992. Hundreds of thousands of lives could have been saved.
Oh, yay. She is going to be the first. In 2013 more likely than 2009, maybe, but the first.
She's definitely taken more $%#@ than any other female politician in American public life- for being a woman. She's burned out a lot of the chauvinist fuel. She doesn't owe anyone, let alone obloquists like you, a damn.
Your handle remains as telling as ever. Your misuse of obloquy, and your shrill desire to continue picking a fight, proves that some supporters ill serve their candidate. This arrogant and often obnoxious sense of entitlement has done damage to her campaign. YOU probably OWE Hillary an apology
I'm supposed to be the walking dictionary around here, then you send me scurrying with "obloquy." Doggone edumacated Brits!
To be fair, that damned Yank Killjoy used 'obloquist' first, and that's even rarer.
Bloody hell!
4 years of McCain's anger-challenged finger on the button might be tempting fate a bit too much.
The number of women in politics has been steadily rising for some time. Obviously there are many other women who achieved great things. But the presidency really represents a different level of power and scrutiny, and I do think Hillary is probably the only woman in the country who could have gotten this far. Put it this way: Many other woman have contributed to blazing the overall trail and they should not be ignored, but Hillary just extended that trail in a way that shouldn't be minimized.
There is no way that Condoleeza Rice would have even sniffed the Republican nomination this cycle. She's a terrible candidate for many, many reasons.
