Steinem Says Vote Obama, Hillary Has Made History

Gloria Steinem’s New York Times Op-Ed on the eve of the New Hampshire primary launched a movement of women and women’s rights advocates to Hillary Clinton’s campaign.  Now that Clinton has lost the nomination, Steinem looks at the issues, sees the similarities, and suggests other women now support Obama.

Margary Eagan, writing in the Boston Herald, has this to say about it:

So there you have it: A woman who has devoted a lifetime to women’s rights says she’s OK with the guy whom legions of Hillary loyalists say they can’t stomach because they blame him for stealing Hillary’s rightful job.

…

Yet lost in all this acrimony is that Hillary Clinton, as Obama himself said Tuesday, “has done what no woman has done before” ever, in our history. She won presidential primaries from coast to coast. She nearly won the nomination. She has answered the tough-enough question (yes, she is) for the next woman who may be today, this instant, what Obama was just a few years ago, an obscure but extremely gifted politician with a vision that resonates – because she is the right woman at the right time.

With that in mind,

The feminist icon whose writings inspired thousands of American women to a passionate support of Hillary Clinton said yesterday she was not at all crushed by Hillary’s loss and believes her race has “absolutely” been good for women. But she now not only supports Democratic nominee Barack Obama, she’ll volunteer for him, too.

“I think she changed forever our understanding of the possibilities of leadership,” Gloria Steinem said of Hillary in a Herald interview after a morning appearance here. “She showed such courage in the face of a media that was trying constantly to get her out of the race and all the misogyny . . . She put up with that with grace. She enlarged my vision.”