Robert Reich -- Hillary "cannot run on being the first woman to be president..."

[BlueCaliDem]

142. For YEARS I've heard people wailing that if women were in power, things would be better

but now that a woman - a strong and qualified woman - decides to run for the White House, we get all these "being the first woman to be president isn't a platform" criticisms. You know what? Hillary Clinton isn't just running on being the first woman to be president. She has been the first FLOTUS to run for the Senate (and won), the first FLOTUS to run for president (lost), and the first FLOTUS to be appointed Secretary of State (and won easily) by, imo, one of the best presidents our country has seen in a LONG while. She is, by far, THE MOST qualified person to be President of the United States.

Believe it or not, not many people give a good god**** what she says she'll be running on in this day and age of fluff reality teevee like the Kardashians and Duck Dynasty. It's all about appearances.

Sure, if she's for peace instead of war in the M.E., hoorah! If she's for the PPACA and wants to expand it, more power to her! If she's for more investment in this country, GOOD. If she's more for cutting taxes on the already obscenely wealthy - as her husband has been - I'm all for it!

But let's be real. Not everyone is as politically informed as most people on DU. Most barely even pay attention to politics, hence the poor showing in midterms compared to presidential election years.

Whether we like it or not, we have to come to terms with the sad fact that people will congregate around a candidate that gets their juices flowing. And they will vote for Hillary Clinton because she can be the first female president in our country, just as they congregated and voted for Senator Obama who was poised to become the first Black president of the United States (and his peace talk helped a LOT, too). The good news is, she's a Clinton, and although her husband could've been more progressive during his two terms (and I'm certain he would've been had the American people not given the Republicans the Congress for twelve friggin' years), he did give us some great justices (Bader-Ginsberg and Breyer), 22 million newly created jobs, a 2.4% unemployment rate, and peace.

We could've done worse.