Hillary Clinton: Her Critics and Admirers…

In the present historic US Democratic presidential nomination marathon, the media and the blogs have now begun to write the obituary of Hillary Clinton’s ambition to become the President of America. (Did someone say that the media ‘obits’ had begun to appear right at the start of her campaign?!!!)

But the recent ‘obits’ also reveal a grudging admiration for the spirited fight she put up despite several odds, including (what her team has been alleging) media hostility.

Two such ‘obits’ caught my attention. The New York Times says: “To use her own phrase, she has been running ‘to break the highest and hardest glass ceiling’ in American life, and now the presidency — even a nomination that once seemed to be hers to claim — seems out of reach.

“Many credit Clinton with laying down a new marker for what a woman can accomplish in a campaign — raising over $170 million, frequently winning more favorable reviews on debate performances than her male rivals, rallying older women, and persuading white male voters who were never expected to support her.

“But as others watched a campaign that starred two possibly transformative figures, they felt a growing conviction that the contest was unfair. Mrs. Clinton’s supporters point to a nagging series of slights: the fixation on her clothes, even her cleavage; chronic criticism that her voice is shrill; calls for her to exit the race; and most of all, the male commentators in the news media who, they argue, were consistently tougher on her than on Mr. Obama.” More here…

And here is Arianna Huffington’s take on the subject: “I have regularly criticized Clinton over the course of her campaign (and long before it, starting with her vote to authorize the war), but there is no question that she has forever altered the way women running for president will be viewed from here on out.” More here…

(Photo courtesy AP/Elise Amendola)