“No tongues.” - Elizabeth, Young Frankenstein

It feels good to love Hillary Clinton again.

There weren’t nearly as many female role models for girls in the 1980s as there are today.  I’m sure the role models were there, just not in my world.  I grew up in a family that doesn’t seem to exist anymore: dad worked, mom stayed home.  Most of my friends had similar families and most of the women we saw on television were white middle class moms, too.

I’d always been a weird kid in that I was interested in politics.  When I was four years old in 1980, my mom took me into the voting booth with her and explained what was going on, what the red and blue levers were for, and why it was important.  She put my hand on hers and together we pulled the red lever.  Growing up, I’d watch election returns on TV with my parents, curious to see who people voted for and whose picture would go on the wall with the rest of the presidents’ pictures in my class.  My parents liked it when a state turned red, so I’d clap when another one changed color.

Fast forward to 1992. By then, it had become apparent that, politically, we didn’t agree on a freaking thing. I was a sophomore in high school, a self-proclaimed Democrat, and would not shut up about Bill Clinton.

Oh, that caused some tension.

I loved Bill Clinton. I also loved Hillary.  I mean, she was a First Lady who had a career.  And as a 10th grade feminist tadpole, I was righteously pissed off that she had to abandon her legal career just because her husband was elected president. But as First Lady, she did, like, stuff.  Stuff beyond renovating the White House and basically being a political accessory to her husband.  Even after her universal healthcare initiative collapsed and she was relegated to the more traditional and humiliating First Lady types of tasks, I remained inspired by her.

So, it really hurt when I started hating her in the last year.

I didn’t dislike Hillary because she was my candidate’s opponent. I liked just about all of the Democratic candidates,especially Joe Biden and Bill Richardson, and even Chris Dodd (although he was best known as Biden’s bromanctic partner at the time and is now starting to look a little George Lucas-y).

I hated the way her campaign brushed off and diminished the importance of any primary or caucus she didn’t win.  I hated the way she seemed to act like she deserved to be president.  I hated the lying about her Bosnia trip.  I really hated that “I found my voice” line in New Hampshire.  I hated that she backed out of a Vogue photo shoot for campaign fears of appearing too feminine.  Most of all, I hated the dirty campaign shenanigans.

She may not deserve to be president - no one does - but she did deserve a better campaign than she had.  Her campaign was beneath her.

That said, I was kinda dreading her speech at the Democratic National Convention this week.  After not getting the nomination and being passed over for vice-president, I wasn’t sure what kind of half-assed, double talking support she’d throw behind B-Rock.

After Hillary’s speech, I felt simultaneously fired up about the election and horrible that I’d dreaded her appearance (I think that’s a mom trait - that ability to make you feel good and really guilty at the same time).

Hillary inspired me again. She made me love her again like she first did sixteen years ago.  Like she did then, she defied expectations.  But, now she’s not constrained by the position of First Lady, a role I think she was always too big to fill because she had so much more to offer the United States.

And really, I think she has far too much to offer to be limited by the presidency.  Hillary could be more influential, could do far more good for the American people as a long sitting senator than she could do in eight years as president.  Just look at Ted Kennedy.   He didn’t get the Democratic nomination either, but no one can say he hasn’t been our best champion in Washington.  No one can say he hasn’t changed America for the better.  I can easily see Hillary filling a similar role in the Senate as her career goes forward.

It’s good to have you back, Hillary.  I can’t wait to see what you do.

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