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I've been hearing a lot tonight that some people, particularly women, feel that they have to vote for Hillary if there's ever going to be a woman in the White House, because there's no other women on the national stage of equal prominence.
I think that's nonsense. Five years ago, there was "no one on the horizon" who could have been the first black president, save for the people who kept talking about Colin Powell. Since then, Barack Obama went from being a state Senator to a national phenomenon, somebody who can not only win against two hundred and twenty years of inertia, but can make people feel good doing it.
When the right person shows up, then they're simply there. It's not a matter of picking somebody from the existing political figures, like some fantasy sports game. It's about the right person presenting themselves at the right time.
Chances are that the first woman president is somebody who almost everyone here has never heard of, and is currently ignominiously digging through paperwork on her desk in a state legislature somewhere, or maybe the House of Representatives. She doesn't know she's the first, but instead is doing what her passion calls her to do, which is try to change our country for the better. Maybe her compatriots have noticed and commented on her skillful oratory, her natural leadership. Perhaps her consituents have appreciated what a good job she does fighting for them, and recognized her potential. She might not even be in politics yet, still grounding herself in the world outside, the world she wants to help. I think she's out there, somewhere, even if she doesn't realize it yet.
I think that Hillary Clinton is alike to Colin Powell, a poor substitute for a true revolutionary leader, grasped at because the right person hasn't yet appeared. But have patience: she will, in time.
And maybe in ten years, we'll be listening to another set of political speeches, waiting to hear something we can believe in, when the right woman steps up to the podium, and changes the course of history.
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