America is ready for a female president, but it won’t be Hillary

-- Paul Learned

There is a lot of speculation about whether Hillary Clinton will run for president in 2008. I have a hard time picturing this for several reasons. The first and foremost reason is that she is a Clinton. While many Americans look at Bill Clinton as a good President, his troubles while in office will cast a long shadow on the people that surrounded him, including his wife. The Starr investigation and the resulting Starr Report put the seed of doubt in many people’s minds. During this investigation, Whitewater became a national obsession.

While in the end, Hillary was cleared of criminal wrongdoing, there are many that look at this land development deal as highly questionable. These sorts of questions only provide ammunition for the GOP to use against Hillary and make her bid for office an uphill battle before it’s even started. The new leadership in the Democratic National Committee will, of course, be looking at this when nomination time rolls around. Howard Dean is on a mission to get a democrat elected as president. This means that those people that step forward to run will need to hold a mass appeal to the American public. While Hillary has appeal for many people, there are just too many questions. And her biggest detractors, the GOP, have already shown that they have considerable power at the polls by squeaking out a narrow victory for Bush in 2004.

The time is ripe for a serious female candidate. But between Whitewater, presidential shenanigans a la Bill, and the smearing she received in the Starr Report, that candidate won’t be Hillary. I am sure she will try to get the democratic nomination in 2008, but in the end, her past, coupled with the mission of the new DNC leadership, will prevent her from getting it.

I think that it will be someone like Barbara Boxer from the US Senate; Kathleen Sebelius, governor of Kansas; Olene Walker, governor of Utah; or Jennifer Granholm governor of Michigan. Some of these women are democrats but some are also republicans. The republicans are just as likely to nominate a female presidential candidate as the democrats; as long as it is someone who has a proven history of public service that goes back further than eight years, and as long as it is someone who has stuck by her guns. I say eight years because, while it may seem unfair, both committees will demand a woman candidate have a history of political service that can be looked at and pointed to while on the campaign trail.

Geraldine Ferraro opened the White House door to women in the ’80s, and women such as Carol Mosley Braun who ran in this last election, continue to chip away at the glass ceiling. It will not fall to Hillary to raise the bar, that honor will go to someone else.

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