Thank you so much for your honesty and your response.

(For what it's worth, I currently writing my diss, so if you're really hung up on rank, take heart, I am not a doctor yet! :)

Privileged? Of course it depends on one's definition, but I often thank the lord above that I've been as blessed as I am. I'm well aware that I've had opportunities many can only dream of. I'm only one generation out of the projects, though (on my father's side), and have had more than my share of setbacks (including a really terrible experience in an urban high school) so in another sense, 'privileged' is really a distortion.

It's none of it straightforward.

That's America, for you.

As to Clinton's not being feminine enough, I'm not sure what to say. It's true I was put off by what I found to be a distasteful hawkishness as well as her cultivation of a sort of Republican, Giuliani-light machismo. Of course I understand that a female in her position has even less room to be touchy-feely and sensitive, that male liberals (like Kerry, for instance) are lampooned as it is for being too faggy.

But in the end, my real problem with Hillary Clinton is that her husband's administration undercut liberalism to the point where it was easier for George Bush to implement his "government is the enemy," neocon agenda because Bill Clinton had ceded an unspeakable amount of ideological ground.

But that's all water under the bridge, now.

It's a New Day.

I appreciate your response, especially for the perspective it brings, but I also sense from your response that I antagonized you. This is the last thing I meant to do and I regret that.

Could you elaborate, please?

Thank you for your candor. I never quite understood what it was about Barack that put people off, as he always seemed quite authentic to me, but whatever.

And I appreciate your emotional investment in Hillary, although it's not one I shared.

As to a female president, it's really interesting. I never thought I'd see a black president in my lifetime (or at least in the foreseeable future--I'm 35) for the simple reason that I don't even see black senators or governors, with a small handful of exeptions.

As for women--there (to my eyes) are tons of them in positions of high leadership, both here and around the world.

Obviously they're underrepresented still, but the pool appears to me to have expanded immeasurably as a result of so-called second wave feminism.

Black people, on the other hand, with rare exceptions, have profited from civil rights only in that they now represent black constituencies, such as cities and congressional districts.

This is why the election of Obama seems truly miraculous (unprecedented) to me. Had Hillary won, I'd have a hard time seeing that as unprecedented. Yes, it would be a first, technically speaking, but as I say, the pool of applicants (governors, senators) is large enough and expanding that it's hard for me not to see a female president as inevitable.

Before the freakish ascendancy of Obama, I don't think anyone could have seriously surveyed the political scene and drawn the same conclusion regarding blacks or people of color, generally.

That's as it looks to me, at any rate.

Very perceptive point on the transformation of Hillary Clinton to white working class hero.

You probably have a point that her focus on economic issues was primarily responsible, but you do seem to downplay a bit the extent to which she used what I'll call cultural identity in a way Obama never could have.

The apparent appeal of the whole shots and shooting behind her grandpa's PA shack and so forth can't be overlooked.

In other words, it's not really surprising that Clinton's economic appeal should have appealed to these voters; what is surprising is that she was able to transform herself not just into an advocate of these people, but into one of them.

This transformation truly bears explanation; why were people who once felt so culturally alienated from her suddenly ready to accept her as just folks?

I'd argue that this was only possible because of the presence of Barack Obama. Only in relation to someone so radically 'other' could Hillary Clinton have been able to credibly sell herself as a member of the low-information, gun-toting working class.

This is how she exploited her white privilege, by being the person Barack Obama never could have been to these people, even if he'd tried.

At least, this is how it seems to me.

Thoughts?