In the 2008 Presidential Election, Hillary Clinton's ambition to capture delegates, states and votes was well implemented. The actual result of her success was minimal. She just didn't have enough to overcome Obama's lead. On June 7, 2008, Clinton ended her campaign and endorsed our current president, Barack Obama, for the remainder of the election.
In summer 2010 while I was in Washington, D.C., I had the pleasure of interviewing Mary Katharine Ham, The Weekly Standard staff writer and Fox News contributor. Ham shared her expertise on the Clinton-Obama match up. "Obama was treated as a celebrity — Hillary came with too much baggage, McCain came with all the Bush baggage, but Obama was just this cool guy, so transcendent."
Today, President Obama's ratings have plummeted, reasons pertaining to the financial crisis, economic and unemployment disparity, unfavorable foreign policy negotiations, to name a few. And ironically, according to a recent Bloomberg poll, Hillary Clinton is the nation's most popular political figure. Clinton has a 64 percent favorable rating in comparison to the president's 50 percent rating.
According to the Quinnipiac University Poll, 51 percent of the nation feels the Democratic president doesn't "deserve" a second term, while only 41 percent would re-elect him.
Clinton has made statements saying that after serving as Secretary of State for the Obama Administration's first term, she will leave her post. Where will we see Clinton next then? What would this country look like if she won in 2008? Or an even better question: what if she ran again?
Many articles hit the web this past week on why she should or should not run again, but Clinton remains focused on her current job. She's also made a stance on a new position: to urge a greater female role in politics.
Speaking last week to the United Nation's General Assembly, Clinton said, "When we liberate the economic potential of women, we elevate the economic performance of communities, nations and the world."
But Dilma Rousseff, Brazil's first female president joined in saying, "Despite notable progress, gender inequality persists."
The United States may have Clinton, a fierce politician who seems to always keep her guard up against anyone, male or female, and also three women sitting on the Supreme Court. But Rousseff makes a point to women everywhere: where's the recognition?
According to Stephanie Coontz, author of A Strange Stirring: The Feminine Mystique and American Women at the Dawn of the 1960s and a CNN contributing writer, "Women now earn more B.A.'s and M.A.'s than men do, and they have pulled even in Ph.D's."
Education levels and experience are mutually exclusive entities from gender dominance. Yet atop the economic, political and educational world, men tend to establish themselves and will dominate to delay a female presence if necessary.
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Even with go-getters like Clinton, there are setbacks. In an article I wrote last year, "Women take charge in new economy," I evaluated a study that explained the change in regime due to the current economic crisis.
Men were losing jobs, women not as often, so women took on new responsibilities and job positions. Still seven months later, with "women on the rise" so to speak, the numbers say the positive thing, but the feelings say another.
Men work hard, but females have made their presence known. Not to say women should always be the dominant force and depose men, but there should not be a culture shock when a woman takes charge in her business, political position or if one day a woman becomes president. Take the job for what it is: well earned and well deserved.
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