Was I in it just for Hillary?

Despite what the media says, I believe that the vast majority of Hillary Clinton supporters are going to get behind Barack.

Sadly, they may not do so with the same verve (volunteer hours and financial backing) that they would have for Hillary, but they will certainly vote for him.  In her speech on Tuesday, Hillary verbalized the “bottom line” that so many of us have been thinking about… If you liked what Hillary stood for, there is NO WAY you could vote for McCain over Obama.  

I remember well the first time someone asked me if I was backing Hillary simply because she is a woman.  I responded with a harsh negative.  Of course its wrong to pick a President based on gender, just as it would be wrong to pick a President based on race.  But when I pondered the question more deeply, I realized that I was indeed deeply influenced by Hillary’s gender. Or more accurately, I was deeply influenced by my own gender.  

Like many other women, I was deeply moved by the possibility of a woman defying the sexism in our culture, the possibility of watching yet another glass ceiling break, the possibility of mothers across the country finally being able to ask their daughters if they wanted to be President when they grew up without wondering if they were giving their daughter false hope.  Yes, it matters to me that Hillary is a woman.

So now what?  Now that my dream of shattered glass ceilings is once again deferred, now what?

There is no longer any hope that the next President will be a woman, but I am still a woman.  No matter what happens in politics, the fact that I am a woman still matters in profound ways.  In fact, it still matters for my politics.

Part of what I loved about Hillary was that I felt I could trust her to have the best interests of women in mind.  I knew she understood what it meant to be a working mother.  She knows, perhaps better than anyone, how hard it is to convince the world that you are more than just someone’s wife.  Her empathy for women allowed her to keep the needs of women and families at the forefront of her policies.  

And you don’t have to be a woman to put women and families at the forefront of your policies. Take a look at Obama’s website and at McCain’s website.  You’ll notice that McCain has absolutely nothing to say about women.  Obama, on the other hand, has a laundry list of ways he hopes to help women, including reducing the pay gap, enforcing child support collection, protecting the right to choose, expanding paid medical leave, providing affordable childcare and afterschool programs, and supporting women-owned small businesses.  Michelle Obama has promised to make the job-family tensions of working women her signature issue.  Joe Biden not only mentioned the pay gap in his speech, but was the author of the landmark 1994 Violence Against Women Act.

Was I in the campaign just for Hillary?  

No, I was in it for women.