I think part of the problem with Hillary, as evidenced by the above posts, is that she is so associated with her husband that some assume she owes her whole career to him. She does not. She had been an attorney on the House Watergate Investigation commitee. There was a time later in Arkansas, when she was the young radical feminist lawyer who made waves in the conservative community by setting up a legal aid clinic for poor and indigent, primarily black, people who couldn't afford lawyers otherwise. When she heard some of the horror stories from abused and raped women she was representing pro-bono at the clinic, it caused her and a fellow female lawyer to set up Arkansas' first rape crisis hotline. She was appointed by the Carter Administration as a result of her pro-bono work to the Legal Services Corporation, and later confirmed by the Senate to run it.

And do you know what she did once while chairing a board meeting in D.C. of the Legal Services Committee? (this is in Gail Sheehy's book), she took time out to breast feed her child. Doesn't sound remarkable, except that women didn't do that in public that much then. Just being seen breast feeding at that time was enough to get you portrayed as a radical. Hillary was an advocate for women being able to breast feed in public. She was first lady of Arkansas and a federal official and she was breast feeding. Radical right?

Hillary was well known in Arkansas as a feminist radical. It is part of why she kept her own last name when she got married. Bill's political career in this conservative state could have been hurt by too much association with this radical feminist lawyer doing all this pro-bono work, rape hotlines .etc They were both well known in Arkansas, but people didn't know they were married because she kept her name. Until Bill became governor. Then it became this huge issue when Bill lost his re-election bid in part (according to Sheehy's book and Hillary's book) because his gop opponent blasted hillary for not taking her husband's name, and said she was disrespecting her husband. She wanted to be respected as her own person by reputation and not be her husband's wife. But she was pressured into taking his name when he ran for governor again, because she was told that he wouldn't win if arkansas voters think you are a radical feminist and not a homemaker.

The point is that Hillary Rodham Clinton is/was a deeply committed progressive feminist. She was before she ever met Bill Clinton and she doesn't owe her career to him. Which is why it puzzles me that feminists on this board and elsewhere want to turn away from her candidacy and support a male candidate, Edwards, whose campaign manager (former congressman david bonior whose positions are well known) is staunchly pro-life. And why? Because she decided to stay married to a philandering husband. Why is his philandering often seen as more HER fault than his? Bill Clinton could get re-elected president if he was constitutionally allowed to run again. People love him even if he did commit adultery. But Hillary, the jilted woman who took her man back, oh they HATE her. I think it is a double standard.

This is the first time in our nation's history, and who knows when it will happen again, that a woman, a progressive feminist woman, has a real chance to be president. Yet it is progressives and feminists who don't want to look at her own past, her determination to keep her name and be her own person, and see her as one of their own. They want instead to villify her as her husband's power-hungry wife. It is really not fair. I can honestly say that if you met Hillary in person in a non-controlled setting, as I have, you would see that she is a really intelligent, engaging personality, a person of deep thought. But most people unfortunately won't get that chance, because Hillary exists in a bubble, she can't step out the door unless she's surrounded by a dozen secret service agents. Do you know many death threats she's had, in particular since she's started her new campaign? Here's a woman trying to be a leader and she's as villified on the left as she is on the right. I think people just are not comfortable with women having power, seeking power. I think it is going to take a strong woman to ever get elected president for all the villification she is going to be put through. Hillary is that person. Here's a woman whose family life has been torn apart by the media, who hasn't had any privacy in a long time, who has had perfect strangers analyzing her marriage as if it were their business. And all those death threats. Yet she is running for President. She wants to go back to the white house and have her personal life targeted for another eight years. I don't think she could or would do that, put herself and her family through that again, unless she loved her country and saw herself as the first woman with a profile high enough, and experience and stature, to be its leader.