Wednesday, January 9, 2008

To Hillary or Not To Hillary

I wanted to write a cogent dissection of the recent New Hampshire primaries with my personal breakdown of the real reasons why Hillary beat Barack, instead of losing to him again as all the pundits and polls had predicted.

On reflection, I realized I couldn't. So I just settled for writing an opening sentence about it. Truthfully, I don't give a rat's do-dah about the New Hampshire primary. And vice versa.

A little closer to home, I spent an hour in a meeting room at the high school with thirty or so of the most high powered women in the area, most of whom have retired their MBAs or left important positions in corporate America to be stay at home moms.

Even though the meeting was scheduled early, most were stylishly well-dressed, in a casual way, some even wearing designer suit jackets with their jeans. There was only one woman who didn't look like she could have walked out of a board meeting in a downtown office. Okay, maybe with some nicer shoes I could have.

The meeting was called to order. Introductions were made. Without much discussion, the heads of various committees gave their reports. Toward the end, an important creative presentation was made to much applause. The date of their next meeting was scheduled and this gathering of the high school graduation party committee was adjourned.

Times have changed.

Back when I had high school kids, meetings like this were held in someone's home a couple of months before the date. Some mom baked cookies. There was lots of meeting foreplay -- the wasted time spent just chatting about kids and family. Other moms went on and on about great coupons they saw in the paper. 

In the 21st century version I witnessed yesterday, nobody baked any cookies. Or bought them for that matter. There was no coffee or tea, except what you brought for yourself. The meeting was at the high school, not someone's home. Everything was managed efficiently and in an extremely businesslike manner. Which got me thinking.

I'm not sure whether Hillary will be our first female president. I do know that I see a key difference among a growing number of female voters that could very well make a female president possible.

There was a time, not too long ago, when females wouldn't vote for Hillary because they couldn't imagine a woman doing what they were raised to believe was only a man's job. Geraldine Ferraro as VP was a sideshow. But Hillary rode  the coattails of her husband's popular presidency and went on to do a good job in the Senate.

Now women look at Hillary and think, "I could do that." So if they don't vote for her, it's not because they think a woman shouldn't be president, it's because they think they could do a better job themselves.

They also understand why she teared up recently. Any professional woman juggling a career, husband, and family has found herself in the exact same emotional state at the end of a long, hard day.

Of course, right now these former business execs are all busy managing their own families, so they're perfectly happy to let Hillary take the lead on this one.

It's no longer a question of if a woman will be elected president, it's just a question of when.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

A matter of when? For what? Hell to freeze over??

I have no objection to a woman President. I object to people voting for the purpose of electing a woman Predient. There's a difference.

I'd vote for Condi Rice in a heartbeat.

Anonymous said...

Oops. Typo-alert. It happens when you piss me off.

Anonymous said...

Luckily Condi Rice won't be nominated. You've been out in the sun too long.

Mrs. L

Anonymous said...

I know this won't make Remo happy nor my hubby for that matter, but it's about darn time. The rest of the world has had women heads of state etc., why not us? I think Hillary is a good woman, she's tough as nails when under fire...she will bring much needed change. Anyway, I like the idea of the powers that be cringing in their boots in Washington....Sandi

Anonymous said...

Condi Rice...are you *(&*&* kidding me! Do you know what her former position is? That is just pathetic! Colin Powell doesn't even like her! I'd rather have him but he is too smart to do such a stupid thing! And quite frankly voting for men just because they are attractive & charming has been going on for so long so...

Anonymous said...

Condi Rice?  She's Darth Vader in heels.  I'd sooner vote for whatever's left of Margaret Thatcher.  I used to think that the first women president (or minority for that matter) would be a conservative, but GWB's buried those chances.  Thing is, I find myself really losing interest in Hillary.  She's so structured, so regimented; makes me skeptical that her tears were unscripted.  But she's got my vote if she's the nominee.  Two of them if the GOP nominates St. Rudy of 9/11.

Anonymous said...

"Any professional woman juggling a career, husband, and family has found herself in the exact same emotional state at the end of a long, hard day."

She's lying if she says she hasn't.  Just last week, after a long night of playing Mommy, Mommy, Mommy; Audrey was STILL talking as she fell asleep, and I was just about ready to burst into tears....and then I woke up the next morning.

So I could do it all over again. lol
Anna