Women leading change: My meeting with Hillary Clinton

Will Hillary Clinton be trading places with George W. Bush?

At February 5, “Super Tuesday”, the majority of states in the US will have primaries and caucuses for the Presidential 2008 Elections. One of the candidates for the Democratic Party Nomination is Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, who is competing against Barack Obama and John Edwards. At the Democratic Party’s National Convention this Summer, the Democratic Party Nomination for the 2008 Presidential Elections will be formally acknowledged.

On one of my visits to the head office of my company Aon, located in Chicago, I was invited by my “Government Affairs” colleague to join her for a Meet & Greet with Hillary Clinton. I was anticipating seeing Hillary and her Democratic Party locals speech from a distance… how totally different the evening would turn out to be…

The personal touch

During the previous week of her campaign, Hillary’s campaign team had decided that it was time to show Hillary from a more personal perspective. As she was raised in a classic suburban childhood in Park Ridge, Illinois, the best place start this more personal campaign was Chicago, Illinois.

The morning of the Meet & Greet she and her husband Bill had had a private breakfast meeting with basketball legend Magic Johnson in Des Moines which was extensively covered on various US TV channels. The celebrities in the US are lining up to claim their support to the candidate of their liking.

From First Lady to First Female President?

A woman running for President, who also happened to have been the First Lady in the past, is attracting a lot of press coverage. Especially because her main democratic competitor is a man of colour. How diverse can elections be?

Mrs Kirchner, running for the presidency in Argentina, most recently set the trend. Hillary is not the first woman to run for president in the US: New York’s Victoria Woodhull (first woman stock broker) ran in 1870, Belva Lockwood (first woman attorney before U.S. Supreme Court) in 1884, Margaret Chase Smith (Rep.) in 1964 and Shirley Chisholm (Dem.) ran in 1972. However, American women see and feel that never in the history of the United States a woman has been so close to becoming the First Female president…

There she was….

The Meet & Greet took place at the Drake Hotel, also known as the hotel of the the movie Trading Places (featuring Eddie Murphy and Dan Ackroyd). We ran into Jerry Springer who was just leaving the hotel… We were taken to the VIP Room…. And we entered with confidence…

There she was, Senator Hillary Clinton, meeting and greeting the prominent Chicago contributors to her campaign. Lining up to meet her I was introduced to various Democratic party icons, amongst others Terry McAuliffe, former Chairman of the Democratic National Committee now Chairman of Hillary Clinton for President.

Then I was standing opposite Hillary Clinton, introducing myself… She genuinely smiled when she learnt I was from the Netherlands. We exchanged a few words, got our picture taken. And …… I was fully taken by surprise by this charming, passionate, warm and enchanting power lady.

What a business woman and what a character she is. You have to admire her strength to come from an underdog position, especially in the last very difficult months of her husband’s Presidency, to gear up with great speed to go after her dream with ample experience in business and life.

Women’s rights are human rights

Hillary’s historic statement at the United Nations conference on Women in Beijing in 1995 that “women’s rights are human rights” still echoed in my ears, when I looked at her.

Her track record is amazing: she became one of America’s foremost advocates for children and families; an attorney twice voted one of the most influential in America; a First Lady of Arkansas who helped transform the schools; a best selling author; a First Lady for America who helped transform that role and becoming a champion for health care and families at home; a true champion of women’s rights and human rights around the world, empowering women all over the world… She simply is ready to be President of the USA…

Iron my shirt?

A few weeks later in the Financial Times she demonstrated her readiness again: when two men yelled “Iron my shirt”, Hillary had quipped “As I think has just been abundantly clear, I am also running to break through the highest and hardest glass ceiling of them all”.

Hillary For President…Just do it, Hillary, you are ready to trade places with George W. Bush!

Marguerite Soeteman-Reijnen
21 January 2008