Hillary's Candidacy

ã Dr. Gary D. Lemmons, January 21, 2007

Not unexpectedly, Hillary Rodham Clinton has announced her candidacy for the Democratic nomination for the Presidency of the United States.  An “exploratory committee” has been formed for this purpose.  No doubt about it, she’s in!  This is an act that has been in the making at least since and if not before she retired from the White House with her husband, former President Bill Clinton, at the end of his second term in January 2001.

Elected to the U. S. Senate in 2000, Hillary immediately took up her responsibility as the State of New York’s junior Senator, and, in all candor, it must be said that she has done an good job in that roll.  One may not agree with her politics, but she has done the “job” of Senator quite well.

Hillary’s candidacy is not the first for a woman.  The first woman candidate for the office of President was Victoria Claflin Woodhull, who ran on the Equal Right Party ticket in the election of 1872. Woodhull was the first woman to address the Congress of the United States when she spoke in favor of the right to vote for women on January 11, 1871.

In 1964, Senator Margaret Chase Smith of Maine became the first woman to seek the nomination of a “major” political party.  As the first woman to serve in both the House of Representatives and the Senate of the United States, Smith sought the Republican nomination and gleaned about 4 % of the national vote.  She refused political contributions and actually returned monies sent in by her supporters!

In 1972, on the anniversary of the first woman candidacy, Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm of New Year became the first black woman to seek the Presidency.  Having been the first black woman member of Congress, Chisholm sought the Democratic Presidential nomination and garnered some 3% of the national vote.

In 1984, Geraldine Ferraro, Congresswoman from New York, was nominated for the Vice Presidency by the Democratic Party.  She and the party’s standard bearer, Walter Mondale, were defeated by incumbent President Ronald Reagan and George Herbert Walker Bush.

There are two things that make Hillary’s candidacy different in 2008.  First, we are now living in the post-modern world.  The 21^st century man and woman no longer see gender as providing a right or a restriction to any activity that human beings wish to engage.  The notion that a man ought not to be a nurse or a “domestic engineer” or even “Mr. Mom” is no longer embraced by rational, thoughtful people.  Equally, the idea that a woman cannot hold highly responsible positions, up to and including the Presidency of the United States, is ludicrous.

Second, Hillary has a tremendous organization.  While it is not totally the Bill Clinton organization from the ‘90s, it is a metamorphosed version…powerful, effective, and deadly toward its opponents.  Already, we see the Clinton forces moving to neuter the one candidate that poses a significant challenge to Hillary in the early primaries…Barack Obama.  It could get very interesting before it is all over.

For those who would defeat Hillary, I would offer this admonition, it will be wise to attack her policies and proposals and not rail against her gender.