Wednesday, August 27, 2008

I'll Say It...Thank You Hillary Clinton...


Not sure if it's from having grown up in the 90s with the help of Murphy Brown, Angela Chase, grrrl power and my strong single mother, but I will always hold a special place in my heart for Hillary Clinton. Last night's speech at the DNC was awe inspiring for so many reasons and the least of was the discussion of the party's policies. What Hillary has done has removed the narrative of "Can we do it?" to when will we do it. Her sentiments do not only make her a stand out as a politician but as an American woman. Have I agreed won everything she he done? Absolutely not, bit she's a politician and she's used to it. What I can appreciate more is her determination in the eye of he storm. Similarly to most woman in positions of power she has been vilified for years, but what make this year special was that it happened from her own party. Yet she never backed down. Bigger people have run from lesser opposition. But don't forget this woman is a pro at being vilified and demonized. Remember when her husband was very publicly caught cheating on her and the joke was that it was her fault. The woman has been picked apart by the media for the past twenty years so why should now be any different. She had to sit and listen while her preteen daughter was publicly compared to a dog by members of the media and the Republican party. As a wife she was found in unattractive and the likes of Rush
Limbaugh
questioned whether we could even choose her as President and sit back and watch her AGE!

During her first Senate run she was called out for using her husbands position to win a political seat all the while only a few years ago being known as the brains behind the pants. Hillary has virtually taken all the abuse most men and angry woman wanted to lodge at feminism for the past 40 years and has happily done so with a smile. When she ran for President last year, I was excited but not just because she as the first viable female candidate to even have a chance at the position but that she had the guts to do it. Whatever you can say able this woman let it be known she has one he'll of a set of cajones. With nearly half the votes democrats placed during the primaries her reasoning as always questioned. While it takes a great deal of ego for anyone to run for the presidency it took her even more for the mere fact she has to deal with about twice the amount of criticism and backlash than others. I believe in her cause of breaking through that ceiling and can only imagine what her words did for young girls watching . I won't personally rehash her policy or the issues that some mark as the demise of her campaign in this here editorial because this is truly a portrait of her as a woman. Someone who didn't want her daughter to hit the middle aged mark and still hear the phrase "the First Woman" in front of any profession or title. And I can't agree with her more. What you can fault the woman for must be kept separate from what she was able to accomplish with such silly backlash. While I am excited for Obama as a candidate I can not say I was not upset last night that this will not be the person to represent us across the world. And I do hope that with all the work Hillary has done and those who came before and will come in the future, by the time I am the Senator's age "The First Woman" anything will be just a description of past events.

Here is Clinton's speech in its entirety from last night:

0 Comments: