Denise, an Obama supporter, asked me last week why I support Hillary Clinton for President - and I do support her, support her with pride even though I believe there is no way the party can or will choose her as its nominee. 

To be honest, I wasn't someone who signed up from the beginning, who was an avid HRC fan from the start.  I sort of assumed she was the front runner, even though early on I saw Senator Obama gaining on the inside rail.  For the most part I thought we were on the brink of a Golden Age of Democrats, eight years of Clinton/Obama followed by another eight years of Obama/?.  I did think she had the superior health care plan and the needed experience and knowledge to lead us more quickly out of Iraq; other than that until recently the Clinton and Obama stands on issues have been very much alike.  It wasn't until January of this year that I - as an older woman - began to feel that Senator Clinton was being treated unfairly and that gradually I began to feel much more strongly about her candidacy. 

For women of a certain age, Hillary Clinton is sort of a touchstone.  She of the famous "stand by your man" and "baking cookie" comments; a politically active First Lady who invigorated her own legions of fans and haters; a feminist who delivered the valedictory address at Wellesley and graduated from Yale and went on to be a doting and world class mother as well; a fiercely competitive and ambitious woman who let her talented husband take center stage.  I have admired her but not particularly liked her.  I think that she and the headstrong young Clinton staff were in many ways responsible for the off year debacle of '94 but I also think that the dignity with which she withstood the pain of her husband's betrayal held the Democrats together in '98.  After the personal devastation of those last years in the White House, I was happy to see her have a personal rebound - based on her ability and her growing political skills - as a senator. 

I feel that she is not only the best candidate the Democrats can put forth at this point in time, I also feel that she had earned the right to be the party's nominee; that is not to say that she is entitled to the nomination.  I don't believe anyone is entitled to the nomination, any more than I think anyone is chosen by God to be President of the United States or predestined for the position.  It is simply that amongst my criteria for the nominee, long and loyal service to the party were and are important.  I do not think she has been accorded the respect within her party that she deserves.  She has been written about by many Democrats in ways that had equal terms been used in regard to Senator Obama would have been reviled.  If one writes in a complimentary manner that Senator Obama is an articulate man it is considered an insult as if to say that black men are generally not articulate but  writers - most of them liberal and many of them Democrats - can say that Hillary's arms are flabby, her ankles thick, her pant suits dowdy, her face wrinkled and all of these terms are defended as being merely adjectives that describe her appearance.  If she and her husband are hurt as once loyal constituencies flock to the new young, sexy guy on the block and as a result perhaps speak recklessly they are branded as racists despite years of working for the common good.  

So, I support Hillary Clinton because I believe along with Paul Krugman that she has put forth the plan most likely to result in universal health care and is the more sophisticated and progressive of the two candidates on other economic issues.  (Here let me interject that I have been tremendously disappointed by her "gas tax holiday" proposals but I have never supported any candidate with whom I was in complete agreement on all issues.)  I support her because I feel that she has been more straight forward about the prospects for bringing our troops home from Iraq and is less naive about how easy it will be to accomplish that task.  And on a purely gut level, I support her because I feel that she has been shunted aside and treated disrespectfully largely because she is a woman and women are supposed to step back and let a man lead. 

I've been on the losing side so many times as a Democrat but in many ways this race and what I believe will be the outcome in November are the saddest losses I've experienced.  In Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama the Democrats had two of the ablest candidates in our history and yet through mistakes, egos and perceived destinies on both sides we have once again jeopardized if not lost our opportunity to lead.  It may be that Senator Obama will indeed take us into a post partisan Promised Land.  I don't see it.  I don't feel it.  If I am wrong though, it will be the best wrong I have ever been and if I'm right, it will be a right that will belie most of the bedrock principles I have held throughout my life.

And so, Denise, I leave the Democratic Party to you.  I truly hope that in the new party of Obama supporters like you take the lead and build a party that is strong, unified, progressive and civil - civil even to those with whom it disagrees, civil even to those whom it believes are relics of the past.