WP, pg1: A Thank-You for 18 Million Cracks in the Glass Ceiling; "Hillary's words soared"

[DeepModem Mom]

A Thank-You for 18 Million Cracks in the Glass Ceiling
By Dana Milbank
Sunday, June 8, 2008; Page A01

During the campaign, it was her opponent who owned the lofty rhetoric. But on the day she finally conceded defeat, it was Hillary Clinton's words that soared.

"As we gather here today," she told her supporters and staff members at the National Building Museum yesterday, "the 50th woman to leave this Earth is orbiting overhead. If we can blast 50 women into space, we will someday launch a woman into the White House." Two hundred forty miles below the international space station, the midday sunlight pouring into the 100-foot-high atrium illuminated the thousands who had come to bid the Clinton presidential candidacy farewell: most of them women, many of them with young children, some of them in tears.

"Although we weren't able to shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling this time, thanks to you, it's got about 18 million cracks in it," the former candidate continued. "And the light is shining through like never before, filling us all with the hope and the sure knowledge that the path will be a little easier next time."

It will be up to the historians to ponder why Clinton waited until the very last day of her campaign to give full voice to the epochal nature of her candidacy. Through the Democratic primary race of 2008, she had played down the significance of being the first woman within reach of the presidency. It's tempting to wonder whether things would have turned out differently if she had embraced the theme earlier -- but there can be little doubt that her last speech of the campaign was also her best....

***

"I ran as a daughter who benefited from opportunities my mother never dreamed of," she continued. "I ran as a mother who worries about my daughter's future and a mother who wants to leave all children brighter tomorrows. To build that future I see, we must make sure that women and men alike understand the struggles of their grandmothers and their mothers."

The words flowed with a force of conviction rarely seen on the campaign trail these many months. "From now on, it will be unremarkable for a woman to win primary state victories, unremarkable to have a woman in a close race to be our nominee, unremarkable to think that a woman can be the president of the United States," she told her supporters. "And that is truly remarkable."...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/07/AR2008060701879.html?nav=hcmodule

[aquart]

1. And the next one to run will be....

Not born yet.

You think they'd be more upset or something listening to that "corporatist" "fascist" "old" "ugly" "monster." How nice that a woman's total capitulation makes her so beautiful and statesmanlike.

But you all go to bed believing that you weren't believing a pack of lies and distortions that you wanted to believe because an ambitious woman has to be stopped.

And pretending you won't attack the next woman of extraordinary courage who dares to make the same attempt.

My disgust remains intact.

[BearSquirrel2]

2. For the good of the country ...

Were you voting for the good of the country or for the good of feminism? Is it possible that Hillary Clinton just wasn't the right person who happened to be female? Do you really think over half the Democratic party voted for a black man in disgust of Hillary being a woman?

Sorry your particular candidate did not prevail. It's not because she is a woman. Last I checked there were other Democratic candidates who dropped out first: Dodd, Biden, Richardson, Kucinich, Gravel, Edwards. They're all men. If we were as sexist as you seem to believe, Hillary would have been out FIRST!!!

[aquart]

8. It must be wonderful to live in such a simple world.

What perfect clarity you clearly enjoy.

Yes, the white men dropped out. It was clearly going to be a celebrity election. Whoever got in, their people would have the glory of proclaiming a breaththrough, a first. Voting for the white guys looked like an act of cowardice.

So naturally they went first.

But I truly love the smugness with which Obama people proclaim their triumph over racism. While they insult women, the aged, hey, anyone who disagrees with them in the slightest, smallest way.

Go yell at someone who is dumb enough to buy the used claptrap you're selling.

on edit: vicious in victory, the hallmark of the Obama campaign.

[BearSquirrel2]

9. Do you ever compare your screeds ...

First you said people were voting against Hillary because she is a woman. Now you say people were voting for Hillary BECAUSE she is a woman. But apparently, not as many people who voted for Obama because he was black, Al Sharpton and Alan Keyes not withstanding.

Get your point straight!!!

[calmblueocean]

3. No one on DU believes that "an ambitious woman has to be stopped."

What inspired animosity in some people towards Hillary was the perception that she was using Karl Rove style politics to score points against her opponent in a Democratic primary.

I appreciated Hillary's speech today, but I thought that "glass ceiling" remark was beneath her. It implied that her loss was not somehow honest or square, but that she lost because she was the victim of prejudice, that the system and its voters didn't treat her fairly. And that just wasn't the case. She fought a hard, close race and lost, mostly because she didn't appreciate how much Democratic primary voters wanted someone who had spoken out early against the war.

She made some major tactical blunders, too, the biggest of which was asserting the race would be over by Super Tuesday, and not preparing enough for the long haul.

But it was when she was down that she was at her strongest as a campaigner. She was a much tougher candidate, much more perceptive candidate these past several weeks than she ever was in Iowa.

The race could've gone either way. It was close indeed.

Which is why I thought it beneath her to frame her loss in terms of the glass ceiling. It wasn't about the glass ceiling at all for her. It was just a plain old loss that could easily have been a win.

[lapfog_1]

4. I guess you will always believe that Hillary failed because

she is a woman.

But it's not true. Hillary failed because she is Hillary. Period.

There were many other women (and men) that I would have supported. I'd start with Barbara Boxer, someone that worked their way up the ranks, put in time in state government before heading to the federal government. Someone that I trust and believe in. And she has a great record of VOTES to run on, unlike other candidates.

But go ahead and claim your victim-hood if you must.

[Bob Dobbs]

6. Bush Clinton crime family must be eradicated.

8 years of being sold out by a DINO clinton is more than enough.

It has nothing to do with her being a woman, it has nothing to do with feminism, and everything to do with the clintonian, rovian campaign she ran and the damage she is still doing to the Democratic Party.

My disgust remains intact.

[Gman]

5. If Obama were a woman,

he would not be the nominee. That's the way things still are. Obama's biggest advantage over Hillary was that he was a man.

[Bob Dobbs]

7. Manure.

It ain't about gender.

Obama's biggest advantage is that he ran on hope not hate, unlike clinton's rovian, slash an burn disgrace.