Hillary certainly has made her mark. Last night, we saw her at the height of her career, the most prominent female political leader in the US of her generation. Only Nancy Pelosi rivals her in US political power, but Nancy's public profile is small by comparison to Hillary's.
And to think that as little as one life time ago, women in the US couldn't vote, that's something.
Unfortunately, Hillary exhibits some distinguishing characteristics that work to her detriment. For one, as we saw again last night, fundamentally she is not a team player. In many ways, subtle and obvious, she exhibits a narcissistic, self-centered focus. This personality characteristic is antithetical to Obama's leadership style. It's also anathema to Obama's core constituency.
Hillary's leadership has been worse than self-centered. Every time she offers up a half-story of the primary situation with elements cherry-picked and distorted to favor her and fire her base and diminish her counterpart, she's intellectually dishonest. It's a moral issue that amplifies Clinton family negatives in the court of public opinion, particularly in rural areas. To skeptics, she simply is not trustworthy.
However there is a new generation of women currently eclipsed by Hillary that will benefit by Hillary's fading from the scene. Among them, strong -- evidently honest -- women like Samantha Power, Donna Brazile, Janet Napolitano, and Kathleen Sebelius.
Obama's base, true progressives, eagerly look forward to the leadership of our next generation of women. We look forward to leadership that is self-reflective, oriented to the whole, and honest. Integrity is key.