[Prudence]

Would Hillary even have been a viable candidate if she hadn't been first lady? I don't think we're at a point in this country where a woman can "rise through the ranks" in the same way the typical male candidate does. True, there are relatively few women in the senator/governor pool in which we like to fish, but they've never been serious contenders. Actually, I didn't expect Hillary to last as long as she has because we still, as a nation, put so much stock in notions of how women should behave. (Can you imagine the fall-out if a female candidate faced infidelity allegations?)

And frankly, her first lady operations never bothered me. Hell, Bill was elected to a second term, so apparently she couldn't have been that much of a bother. If I cared passionately about a cause and suddenly was in a position - elected or not - to possibly have what I saw as a positive impact, I'd take that ball and run. Could she have handled things a bit more artfully at first? Perhaps. Maybe that approach worked in Arkansas and she was as shocked as anyone that the rest of the country wasn't on board.

Also, I've said it before - I get really sick of political pundits jumping to knock down someone who suggests a reform because that reform isn't perfect, and then not even having the balls to suggest something else. It's really easy to criticize but there are real problems that merit real discussion. If there was a "perfect" answer I'm sure it would have appeared already. We're imperfect people and we're going to have to settle for imperfect solutions. And if the first lady or first gentleman or first daughter's ex-boyfriend's next door neighbor's cousin wants to spark a national discourse, I'm in favor.

However, I'm with blueerica - I'm just feeling blah about this election. My preferred candidate isn't yet old enough to run, and my second favorite candidate already bowed out. I'm pretty sure that no matter how it shakes out I'll somehow end up in the group that needs to be taxed more and provided fewer benefits (too poor for R tax cuts, too rich for D tax cuts). Maybe I just sigh and wait for 2012.