Cohen Nancy L. - Breakthrough, The Making of America s First Woman President

Copyright 2016 Nancy L. Cohen

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Cohen, Nancy L., author.

Title: Breakthrough: the making of Americas first woman president / Nancy L. Cohen.

Description: Berkeley, CA: Counterpoint Press, [2016] | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2015037130

Subjects: LCSH: WomenPolitical activityUnited States. | Women politiciansUnited States. | Women presidential candidatesUnited States. | Women presidentsUnited States.

Classification: LCC HQ1236.5.U6 C64 2016 | DDC 320.0820973dc23

LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015037130

Interior design by Megan Jones Design

COUNTERPOINT

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e-book ISBN 978-1-61902-753-4

To my daughters, Helena and Camille, and my stepdaughters, Morgan and Paloma

Table of Contents

CONTENTS

L OS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA. June 19, 2014. A line three people deep stretches out from the Barnes and Noble entrance, around the corner, and along Third Street for a quarter of a mile. It is early morning and about 3,000 men, women, and children are chatting on the sidewalk, cars whizzing past, waiting to meet Hillary Clinton.

Well, Im here because she is a trailblazer, Twyla Hodges says. She has stood as a glass ceiling breaker and she is making history right now. I think that she is a great role model for women, for children, for the generations to come. Its great that she is coming out here and actually supporting and campaigning with her constituentsactually caring about us. Especially since she is going to become the next president. I have very strong faith in that.

In fact, Clinton wont officially declare she is running for president for another ten months. Her visit to Los Angeles is only a stop on her summer book tour.

Im hoping that Hillary breaks the glass ceiling this time out. I think its long overdue, Tony Cowser, a slender, forty-three-year-old African American man, a few hundred people down the line, told me. I like her integrity and I like what she represents. I think that she deserves to be the next president. Ill share with you a little story. I was in college and she was First Lady and I was driving to work one day. I remember this disc jockey said that Hillary Clinton was a briefcase-toting bitch. It was such strong lingo that I nearly had an accident. I felt that statement was so foul that I vowed that day that whatever she did, I was going to support her. So thats why Im here.

Across the street at the Farmers Market people were milling about, carrying plastic bags with Clintons new book, Hard Choices, showing through, grabbing breakfast before they got back in line for their moment with Clinton a few hours later. Joe Boccolucci, who had gotten into line at 4:00 AM, was seated at the counter of Phils Deli and Diner. I was going back and forth whether I should do it or not because I have a little son and I had to find somebody to watch him, he said. I was a huge Hillary supporter in 08, so I was excited to have her book come out and support her in 2016hopefully, if she runs. When I asked him what he liked about Clinton, he said, The whole Democratic platform. Shes about immigration reform, equal rights for everybody, womens rights.

Hes a gay dadgay rights, Boccoluccis twenty-eight-year-old sister Katelyn Rydzewski interjected.

Millionaires paying their fair share when it comes to taxes and stuff like that, and Clintons all about that, Boccolucci continued.

I think she needs to run, I think it would be stupid if she didnt, Rydzewski said. I think she just has everything that we need, and I think its time for a woman to be president. I would love to see that myself.

Shes the right woman, too. Shes smart, her brother said. Its the right time.

The new America was thrilled Hillary was there to meet them face-to-face. There was something uncynical, even old-fashioned, in the way they described Hillarymy hero, inspired, and icon. Many people spoke of their hopes to elect the first woman president and be part of history in the making.

Wherever Clinton traveled for book signings in the summer of 2014, large crowds of fans appearedmore than 1,000 in St. Paul and Philadelphia, 1,200 in Seattle, thousands in Saratoga Springs. At Common Good Books in St. Paul, one woman told the St. Paul Pioneer Press, I just look up to her so much. I think shes a great role model for young women. (Her nine-year-old daughter dreamed of being a congresswoman when she grew up.) One man had come straight to the bookstore from church with his two sons. Clinton will be an excellent candidate if she decides to run, he said. It would be good for a woman to be president.

GERMANS, BRAZILIANS, AND Brits have done it. Catholics, Muslims, and Hindus have too.

The citizens of more than fifty nations have elected women to lead them. But not us. Two and a quarter centuries after George Washington became the first POTUS, nearly 100 years after women won the right to vote, Americans have still not elected a woman president. Meanwhile democracies that are no more than ten, twenty, or thirty years old have chosen women to lead them. Indeed, the United States, birthplace of modern democracy, ranks a mediocre 72nd on the 2015 World Economic Forum index of womens political empowerment.

It is a national embarrassment.

Yet 2016 could change all that. America is at a historical inflection point. The old barriers that once blocked a womans ascent to the Oval Office have crumbled, more so than we realize.

Like many political junkies, I started thinking about the 2016 presidential election just weeks after the 2012 votes were counted. I love a good political horse race as much as the next guy. But this coming election calls out for more than just the shes uphes down daily punditry. We stand on the cusp of a historic milestone, and thats a story that needs to be told.

Granted, there are those who would say that we went directly from resistance to a woman president to apathy about itin effect leapfrogging over the zeal-to-make-history stage. Several political consultants I interviewed insisted that only a tiny minority of voters would be motivated by the idea of electing a woman. When I mentioned this to Jennifer Granholm, Michigans first woman governor and a Democratic Party leader, to get her opinion, she shot back, What?!as if she didnt hear me right.

I totally disagree with that, I totally disagree with that! Granholm said. Any woman who has run for office will tell you that you go down these parade routes and you see two things. You see women who are in their eighties or nineties who say, I want to vote for you because it hasnt happened before. Or you cant get away from parents pushing their daughters forward and saying, Look, theres our governor, see? Thats her! The implicit message is, That could be you one day. It is not about me. It is about what is possible for their daughters.