A television reporter describing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton?s departure from a New York hospital last week described her as looking ?radiant.?
That broadcaster needs glasses. Several photos made it clear Clinton was not looking or feeling radiant. How could she? She had just experienced what could have been a very serious blood clot, something that will surely end her prospects for a successful presidential campaign in 2016.
A day after Clinton left the hospital, women members of the new Congress posed for a group photo and did slews of interviews. They are an impressive lot ? Republicans and Democrats, mothers of young children, grandmothers and combat veterans. As the largest class of women Congress members to date, they see the future for women in politics as brighter than ever.
The Hillary era is over.
A huge number of women political activists have for decades accepted as gospel that Clinton should and would be the first woman elected president. Never mind that putting Hillary back in the White House meant you-know-who would be there as well. As Bill Clinton famously said 20 years ago, ?you get two for the price of one ...?
Clinton made a heck of a run in the 2008 primaries and even had a transition team picked out. That?s how inevitable the dream was.
It didn?t work out but Clinton got the consolation prize no one predicted: secretary of state. She was not the first or even the second woman in that post but she has done an exemplary job. I cannot think of a single misstep. Moreover, she never for a second tried to outshine the man who elbowed her out of the top post at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. If only other Washington pols could put their egos on hold the way Hillary Clinton can.
Even before she fell in her home and suffered a concussion that led to her hospitalization, Clinton admitted she was exhausted. How she kept going after traveling nearly a million miles in four years is remarkable ? a tribute to her tenacity. The woman is 65 years old and she doesn?t travel in Air Force One luxury. The private quarters on her State Department plane are small. She has admitted that all she wants to do for weeks or months after leaving her post is sleep and get some exercise.
Then, of course, the pressure from her legions of fans will build. But the landscape has been altered dramatically. This is not the first time Clinton has had a clot and blood clots can lead to strokes. No matter how reassuring her doctors are, a presidential candidate who?s a senior citizen with a history of blood clots will make voters nervous. And let?s not forget the legions of voters on the right who remain ready to demolish her.
Once Clinton leaves the State Department, focus will likely shift to the women movers and shakers in the House and Senate, as it should. The newcomers are excited and eager to make change. They have joined Congress at a critical time and they know it. Never have domestic challenges been so great and the world is constantly offering unanticipated crises.
The Clintons have made a strong mark on American history. The president ? whose balanced budgets are now getting the respect they deserve ? and the secretary of state did stellar jobs. Both should be satisfied. We don?t always get what we want in this life and Hillary can take pride in her career as first lady, senator and diplomat. But this country does not need dynasties and it certainly doesn?t need the drama of a Clinton rerun in the White House.
For the Clintons, there?s another card to play. In one of those ?if your name were Chelsea Smith? situations, the Clinton daughter, who never spoke to the press even after leaving the White House, landed a coveted job last year as an NBC correspondent. Does anyone think that now she?s tested the waters there won?t be pressure for a political career? Chelsea left her lucrative job at a hedge fund ? not good for a political aspirant, especially in these times ? and spends time working with her father?s foundation and for other causes.
I am looking forward to watching the new women in Congress. We need their fresh perspectives and energy. Their numbers, while still disappointing, are too large to ignore ? 20 in the Senate and 81 in the House. There are doubtless stars among them; we don?t yet know which ones.
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