...what national leader isn't?  (I assume you don't really mean to include Ms. King, who wasn't ever really shredded)  

I mean, was the world so kind to John Kennedy, to Tony Blair, to Yitzhak Rabin?  Hell, was the world so nice to Bill Clinton?

If you do just about anything in this world, someone is going to come after you, and the more you do, the more people will take their shot.  No matter what gender you are.  Again, not to suggest that gender isn't a major issue that Sen. Clinton has to overcome, or that it wasn't a major issue for all the other women I named.  But the fatalism here is what I take issue with.  Certainly, it would be very possible and still is that Sen. Clinton could well be the next President of the United States.  History is not written before it happens, and certainly not by gender alone anymore than by race alone.