Hillary's Rough Road

After it became clear Hillary Clinton would not be "anointed" as the nominee of the Democratic party for President, she and her campaign have (mostly) made all sorts of self-serving, although often dubious, claims. By being persistent, she and her supporters have scored some "victories".

Case in point: she's claimed to be treated unfairly by TV during the debates and on comedy shows. As a result, she's been treated differently by SNL, and appeared on SNL and the Daily Show right before the crucial Texas and Ohio primaries. On both shows, she showed a sunny disposition.

Meanwhile, back on the campaign trail she made unsupported and misleading statements about Barack Obama. And, introduced a last-minute, fear-inspiring TV ad that seems to have swayed undecided Texas voters into her corner; perhaps enough to win the popular vote.

Hillary is often reported to be calculating because she is; not because she's a women.

The "debate" over whether or not America is ready for a women President is bogus; it is ready. Hillary could be nominated and win. More important is the consideration that she (like Bill) is so polarizing that nothing much might get done.

We need as a country to find common ground; and Hillary has proved again, in her campaign, that she's not very good at this skill. MSNBC had an hour-long show on her career; it included some calculating and in-your-face behavior from her days as First Lady of Arkansas.

Will American voters elect women leaders? It's informative to look at the gains women have made in leadership positions at the State level. There have been a raft of qualified, and largely able, women Governors since the mid-1970's.

Currently eight women are Governors (5 Dems, 3 Reps) including highly regarded Jennifer Granholm (D-MI), Jennifer Napolitano (D-AZ) and Kathleen Sibelius (D-KS).

Linda Lingle (R-HI) is the first elected Republican Governor of Hawaii; and she has a non-traditional biographical background compared to her constituents (Jewish, twice divorced and childless).

If America wants its first woman President to be the wife of a former President (as earlier women Governors were mainly those whose husbands had been Governor), I suggest waiting for Michelle Obama.