Het verlies van Hillary is mot De Mislukking van vrouwen. De eis dat één of andere `Boze Witte Vrouwen`of voor John McCain of verblijfshuis op de Dag van de Verkiezing zal stemmen, geluiden zoals teleurstelling die in schijnheiligheid overdraagt aan.

Schrijft: Connie Schultz

Vorige week, gaf ik mijn dochter een kleine plaque die met de woorden van een Japans gezegde wordt geschilderd.

Het was de gift van een moeder om haar nieuwe flat te vieren en haar eraan te herinneren dat zij klaar is voor welk leven ook bij haar werpt. Ik kon niet helpen maar denk, niettemin, dat de zes kleine woorden op zijn centrum een machtige herinnering voor me, ook, binnen deze dagen na de primaire verkiezingsnederlaag van Hillary Clinton waren:

De „daling zeven keer, staat acht op.“

Er is overvloed van verdedigers Clinton die niet dit willen horen, weet ik het, maar het is tijd om het vuil weg te borstelen en op te heffen. Het verlies van Hillary Clinton is geen mislukking voor vrouwen tenzij wij het zo zullen zijn.

Een vrouw zal niet verkozen worden voorzitter in 2008. Deze werkelijkheid heeft de wind uit miljoenen Amerikanen, vooral heel wat vrouwen, met inbegrip van me geklopt.

Like many women about my age, I grew up believing that a woman could run our country but thought I never would get to see her do it in my lifetime.

Then along came Hillary.

I was never so happy to be wrong than when she proved, one primary after another, that plenty of fellow Americans believed she had the mettle to be commander in chief.

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And the chutzpah. Lord. Time and again, pundits and politicians predicted her demise. Time and again, there she was, giving another victory speech. It was enough to make a grown girl giggle.

I didn’t always agree with Clinton, but so what? I’d voted for a lot of bozos over the years, and even the best of candidates have flaws. I didn’t need Hillary Clinton to be perfect. I needed her to win.

Oh, to come so close.

There is a funereal quality to the coverage of campaigns once they’re over, and Clinton’s is no exception. Lots of “post-mortem” this and “life after” that; dreams “die,” careers may or may not be “resurrected.”

There are lots of references to mourning, too, especially in discussions about the letdown after a long and hard-fought battle. Grief has many faces, many moods, and it must be said that some Clinton supporters aren’t at their best just yet.

Let a little time pass so that this disappointment can run its course.

I’m not talking months or even weeks. I’m just asking for a little space for those who poured a lot of hope and energy into what they thought was going to be the culmination of a lifetime’s worth of dreams.

Surely, nobody understands better that rush of adrenaline than those who dared to believe in Barack Obama. That’s just one of the many things they have in common with the Clinton crowd.

Which brings me to those Clinton supporters who now insist they cannot and will not support Obama. They claim they either will vote for John McCain or stay home on Election Day. That sounds like disappointment devolving into hypocrisy.

We either stand for change or we don’t. We believe in participating in democracy, or we don’t. It’s one thing to vote for McCain because you trust his road map for the future. It’s quite another to do it out of some warped notion of revenge. A bitter retreat is no way to honor the first woman to come this close to being the presidential nominee.

McCain Lies and Flip-Flops

Hillary Clinton lost, but she lost on her terms. She was no quitter, and that is a legacy that will only burnish with time. I am reminded of a recent dinner with several other female columnists from around the country.

At first, we talked about the usual things: family and jobs and keeping watchful eyes on the balance. But after a round of drinks — OK, maybe it was two rounds — we started whining about ugly reader responses, particularly from men who focus on our gender instead of our opinions.

Then one of the women mentioned Clinton and brought all of us to a hush.

“I don’t know,” she said, poking at the ice in her glass. “Some days I think this job isn’t worth it, but then I think of Hillary and how she never stops no matter how hard they hit her. If she can take all that and still come out smiling, we can keep on, too.”

Yes, we can.

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