Eleanor Clift at the Daily Beast posted an early draft of the liberal/feminist euphoria over the first female president before the results came in:
The idea of a woman president has been talked about for longer than most people have been alive. In 1956, when John F. Kennedy was a senator, he wrote in Everywoman’s Magazine, the precursor to Family Circle, that the first woman president would possess these attributes: the wisdom of Eleanor Roosevelt, the leadership of Joan of Arc, the compassion of Queen Victoria, the cleverness of Clare Boothe Luce, the determination of polio nurse Sister Kenny, and the courage of Helen Keller.
He might have added it would help if she didn’t have the baggage of a political figure who’s been in the public eye for a quarter century. That’s part of the arc of history that brought us to this point, the hazing that Hillary Rodham Clinton survived with such stamina and grace to stand on the precipice of victory.
This gasbaggery has a historical echo. For this is how Time’s Tweedledum version of Hillary sycophancy, Margaret Carlson, introduced Hillary to the country in 1992 as an “amalgam of Betty Crocker, Mother Teresa, and Oliver Wendell Holmes.”
Clift lamented that she has “unfortunate baggage, much of it overblown,” but gee, if she could only offer “a little give” to investigators:
Then as now, viewing the attacks on her and her husband as part of a “vast right-wing conspiracy” has been a hallmark of Clinton’s survival technique. She will enter the presidency with unfortunate baggage, much of it overblown, but that goes right to the heart of her biggest flaw, her tendency to go into a defensive crouch and tough it out when a little give could avoid a lot of heartache.
Or, as we found out in the cattle-futures story, when little details seep out of the Clinton records, one understands why they shred documents or hide them in closets. Clift then turned back to the "I am woman, hear me roar" copy, suggesting all women should be thrilled that an abortion-loving, adultery-enabling woman ended the male hold on the White House:
There are likely to be more than 20 women in the Senate after Tuesday, and together with Clinton in the White House, they will send a strong signal to women and girls that nothing is holding them back, that the future is there for them.
Mark Siegel, a former executive director of the Democratic National Committee, says he didn’t think he’d live to see a woman president, or a black president. He’s in his sixties, and points out that we are now growing a whole generation of young Americans who won’t know what it’s like to live under a white male president. What this portends for the future, he says, is that it will be “almost incumbent upon both parties to have a woman on the ticket in the future.” After cracking the glass ceiling in 2008, Clinton came back to finish the job, not only for herself, but for all those little girls, and big girls too, who can see what’s possible
