Estrich - The Case for Hillary Clinton

Imagine the moment when a news anchor will say, Based on all our projections, we can now say that the United States of America has elected its first woman president

If youre old enough, think back to how you felt in 1984, when you heard that Walter Mondale had picked Geraldine Ferraro to be his running mate. Remember what it was like when she stood up to accept the nomination, and for a moment there were no limits to what was possible. Sally Ride was flying into space; Gerry Ferraro was running for vice president. All of a sudden it seemed true after all: Women could do anything.

Now, multiply that feeling by a thousand, and imagine how it will feel when a woman stands up to accept the Democratic presidential nominationthe first woman to be nominated for the presidency by either party.

And then multiply that by a thousand, and think of election night 2008. Imagine yourself turning to your daughter, or your mother or sister, or your niece or grandmother or granddaughter, and saying:

If she can do this, then the world really has changed.

And across the globe, in every language women speak, as the pictures travel and the word spreads, as those voices are heard, billions of girls and women will turn to each other and say the same thing, and the world will never be the same.

This is an argument for that night.

It is an argument for how we can get there.

For what all of us have to do to make it happen.

The following people are not real. (Although any resemblance to real people is entirely intentional.)

BERT: Its suicide. Shell win two states.

BARBARA: I hope Judith is paying you a fortune, Susan.

BERT: Maybe we should invite her for dinner?

BARBARA: After all those makeovers

BERT: You want to imagine something? Imagine the Supreme Court with nothing but conservatives for the next fifty years, because we gambled wrong

BARBARA: Bert says its okay to make him a character as long as you dont tell people youve convinced him, because you havent. And make sure you dont use our real names.

Remember Harry and Louise, the doubting-Thomas couple from those ads attacking Hillary Clintons health care plan? Bert and Barbara are my Harry and Louise. If they were real, they might be my best friends.

You cant win, Bill Clinton said the other day, talking just to people who agree with you. You have to meet the arguments of people who start out on the other side.

Thats music to the ears of a law professor.

When youre talking about Hillary, its easy to find people to argue with. Most Democrats I know, even the ones who like her, are up in the air about Hillary. Ive never been attacked like I have since I started telling people what I was writing aboutand I live where it is very, very blue.

Bert and Barbara are actually more positive about Hillary than some other people I know. My friend Maureen thinks Hillary is about two years old, developmentally. Two is not a charming age. Two still has pieces missing. People are drawn to her, she says, but theyre uncomfortable with her because they sense that theres literally something missing. Bill fills in the pieces. Thats what keeps them together. Thats why, whatever I write, Maureen is certain that people wont like it. There will be something missing.

My friend Neil thinks she is cold at the core. A phony. But hes impressed by her New York numbers. Maybe she can pull the same thing off, he reasons, if she can figure out what worked before Dick Morris beats her to it and finds a way to counterpunch. Neil thinks Dick is smart, but that he cant get over the fact that Hillary outsmarted him; and Dicks cross because he lost to a two-year-old, playing the same game over and over.

I think Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, soon-to-be second-term senator from New York, centrist Democrat, strong on security, tough, moderate, family values, middle-aged, qualified, managed by Bill Clinton, is the next president of the United States.

I have it in my head to try to convince my friends that Im right and theyre wrong.

Is Hillary running?

Yes.

Has she told me so? No, of course not. Ann Lewis, her chief political aide, will say only that Were focused on the Senate campaign now. Of course, its a necessary political ruse. Nobodys trying to convince us that Hillarys New York constituents are flocking to vacation in Minnesota and Wisconsin and Ohio, three states she has visited recently. Nobody really believes its essential to have a state chair in Georgia when youre running for Senate in New York. She has the best possible guy in her California chair, and he told me only recently that he was vitally interested in the New York Senate race. Hillary made headlines in May by inviting her Iowa supporters to her Washington home for a fundraiser, an innovative step to take in a New York race.

In politics, there are steps you take when youre running for Senate, and steps you take when youre running for president. When youre running for president, you put together a presidential-caliber PAC run by a veteran presidential-caliber campaign chief like Ann Lewis; you start hiring national organizers; you amass a bigger war chest than any other senator who is up for reelection, even before you have an opponent; you put your people in place in the appropriate think tanks, media groups, state parties, and consulting firms so everybody is ready to go. All of which senatorial candidate Hillary Clinton has done.

Since election night 2004, Hillary Clinton has been leading in every poll for the Democratic nomination. Not only does she have the most money, the best organization, and the most loyal staff among all the potential playersshes also young enough, old enough, smart enough, bold enough, and for all those reasons beloved enough by the voters of the Democratic Party. And theres every reason to believe shes dreamed of itmore than two or three times, anyway. Why in the world wouldnt she be running?

Can you imagine any man in her position not running? Theyd think he was nuts. His staff would kill him. Theyd fill out the papers for him.

But can she win?

Can America elect its first woman president?

Can a woman who has been more vilified, humiliated, put down (and, yes, lied to), more than any of uscan she stand up, fight back, use her own intelligence and power, find her authentic voice, her real style, her center, grow into exactly who she was meant to be, and at the age of sixtyin her true primeshatter the glass and change the world?

She can.

But it will take the help of a lot of people who have not been with her before. Women who didnt quite get her, cringed at all the makeovers, found themselves more drawn to him than to her. Women who have even been critical in the past. Women like me.

BERT: People hate her. You know that. They think shes arrogant, self-righteous, crooked, conniving, cold, calculating, and ambitious. Personally, I think shes intelligent and charming, but shes unelectable.

BARBARA: They think shes a phony. And, Susan, she hates youdont you remember?

I have not always been number one on Hillarys list

(Alert to unsuspecting readers: What follows might be an old trick Evan Thomas of Newsweek tried to teach me in 1988: Lead by saying something bad about your candidate. Watch Jim Baker, he said. Its called showing the ball. She must be telling me the truth if shes telling me this , theyll think. And I am.)

At the 2004 convention, Madeleine Albright came up to me wagging her finger. What you said about Hillarys speech last night was not helpful.