President Obama delivered his 'first' State of the Union speech to a joint-session of US Congress yesterday. I would have loved to watch it, but overslept:
Click here to read the speech.
The speech has so far elicited various reactions within the US -- from fringe Republican predictability to those willing to be persuaded and wishing him to succeed.
In general, it seems, his drive to re-connect with middle class citizens just might work -- if his agenda works, against a tide of Republican baying.
The monumental question, though, is this: Will globalization's tentative but inexorable equitization momentum allow him ample elbow room for the US to fully recover, in his watch? That's the thought that came to my mind as I waded through all the aftertalk, such as I was able to wade through in the (rushed) morning.
Showing posts with label Female President. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Female President. Show all posts
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Sunday, June 08, 2008
Hillary's Long Goodbye
I watched Hillary's concession speech, and her endorsement of Obama as their party's presidential nominee, on CNN, Saturday evening. She should have endorsed him sooner, though. I think the "long" delay has done only damage to the already shaken Clinton legacy. Still, I was impressed by the historicity of the moment, and by her no less historic delivery. I felt admiration for her dry, dry-eyed and inner strength -- in contrast to the all-red (all out) Bill. And I felt genuinely sorry for her, wondering why she should not try again in 2016.
She has moved closer to having an important role in the coming Obama administration -- and it is surely coming. As I have pointed out in my blog, however, there are great risks to her being Obama's running mate. Not in 2008 -- perhaps in 2012, should there be an opening.
I think the first female President of the US will most likely be one who has shattered, really shattered, the glass ceiling into more than 18 million pieces all on her own -- to the much debatable extent that heroes do these things alone -- and not, as was tragically Hillary's unsolicited and inescapable fate, essentially on the back of her husband's record (as a two-term US President!). But by 2016 Hillary (who's healthy enough, it seems to me) will most certainly have "atoned" (with extended duty and absence from the highest table)for her easy path to the 2008 campaign, as a former First Lady, and may be that female who at last shatters what now remains only, though so enticingly, cracked.
She has moved closer to having an important role in the coming Obama administration -- and it is surely coming. As I have pointed out in my blog, however, there are great risks to her being Obama's running mate. Not in 2008 -- perhaps in 2012, should there be an opening.
I think the first female President of the US will most likely be one who has shattered, really shattered, the glass ceiling into more than 18 million pieces all on her own -- to the much debatable extent that heroes do these things alone -- and not, as was tragically Hillary's unsolicited and inescapable fate, essentially on the back of her husband's record (as a two-term US President!). But by 2016 Hillary (who's healthy enough, it seems to me) will most certainly have "atoned" (with extended duty and absence from the highest table)for her easy path to the 2008 campaign, as a former First Lady, and may be that female who at last shatters what now remains only, though so enticingly, cracked.
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