Hillary Clinton, President

Hillary Rodham Clinton, sworn in as 44th President of the United States, 20th January 2009.

Once a fantasy of liberal America, is this now possible? Is it even desirable?

As the weekly dose of America as we would rather it be, the West Wing, fades from our screens, a new series stands ready to supplant it as our fix of wish fulfillment. Commander-in-Chief, starring Geena Davis, is a story of a female Vice President who arrives in the Oval Office, in the teeth of fierce resistance, after the former Presidents untimely demise. Once ensconced in the White House, she fights nasty Republicans and foreign crazies alike with a combination of feminine wiles and motherly common sense. But even Hollywood, the Mecca for liberal and progressive America, does not dare elect a woman to that position. So what will the real America do in 2008? Will it be President Clinton the Second?

The most striking example from history, where a major world power elected a female leader was Britain in 1979, and even then it took a virtual breakdown in the fabric of society (the Winter of Discontent), together with a incumbent administration that failed to take the woman seriously, for Margaret Thatcher to just win through.

The reality of those times, without the benefit of hindsight, should be recalled, and applied to measure Hillarys chances.

Thatcher gained the leadership of her party in 1975 through stealth, not merit. The Conservative Members of Parliament who voted for her, did so at the urging of party bigwig Airey Neaves exhortation to "send a message to Mr Heath" (the Conservative party leader of the day, who had recently been defeated at the polls for the third time).

As leader of the Conservative Party, Margaret Thatcher, embarked on an immediate image overhaul, with the help of PR guru and TV producer Gordon Rees. She softened her image and reduced the volume and shrill character of her voice. Her detractors will laugh at whether that was effective or not, but listen to any early recordings of her speeches and you will get my point) The Labour government, led by the affable but inept James Callaghan, refused to take the woman seriously and paid the price at the polls, although many argued at the time that Thatchers Conservatives won in spite of, rather than because of, her.

Many more proceeded to repeat Callaghans mistake and during her first term (1979-83) she was beset on all sides by those men (and it was always men), who thought she was no match for them, miners, members of her own government, the media and the Argentine military.

Eventually she won through, and the rest is history. She is now widely accepted as Britains most influential premier since Churchill.

Recently, the Germans elected Angela Merkel as head of a minority government, and although her first months have been somewhat of a honeymoon, no-one should be in any doubt that she means to change Germany for the better, for ever. Her words give little away; her actions tell us everything we need to know. She discarded protocol at the recent European summit in order to get Tony Blair on her side. She has repaired the German / American relationship, after years of bad feeling and back biting between Washington DC and Berlin. And there will be more to come.

Gender aside, Clinton is neither Thatcher nor Merkel. However, that will not stop the most strenuous efforts being put into ensuring that she does not make it to the White House.

Hillary Clinton is loathed, distrusted, underestimated and misunderstood on all sides, before she even starts, not because of her stand on Iraq, or her House voting record, but because she is a woman. Indeed, just to rub salt in the wound, a woman with a loud voice and opinions to match. In this she is markedly different from any that has gone before her.

It is because she is a woman that her candidacy for the most powerful position in the world will polarize and divide an already embittered and embattled country.

It is because she is a woman that she will be turned upon by her own, female Democrats. This has already begun, http://www.freepress.org/columns/display/1/2006/1304. Proof indeed that a woman is a womans harshest critic.

And it is because she is a woman that she must run. For were she to become President then the world would become, overnight, a better place in all kinds of ways.

Fundamentally, women are different to men, whether we choose to recognize this or not. Women have babies and are built for different priorities. Womens bodies undergo changes every month that most men would find too much to bare. Men fight and women love. It is a simple truth, although please be sure to understand that it is not intended as a simplistic truth.

Intellectually, the woman, so long as she is her own person, is generally more likely to employ common sense, to understand the process of cause and effect and to be less restricted by convention and procedure than a man, who of course thrives within rules and regulations.

Materially, the woman, provided she has some security herself, is generally more likely to understand the basic need that all of us have for food, water, shelter and healthcare. Something that the man has demonstrated he possesses no understanding of.

Spiritually, the woman, so long as she possesses some sense of individuality, is generally able to grasp that women look at things differently to men, that the dominance of male priorities over centuries has led us to the chaos we now find ourselves in, and only by being a woman, not a female man, does she stand a chance.

Hillarys greatest strength is her greatest weakness. In government, she speaks as she finds. If it is a lie, she says it is a lie. Her ability to recognise the reality of a situation, not procrastinate about how it should be, will enable her, like women the world over, to get the job done. But like women the world over, she will be berated for it.

A great responsibility rests on Hillary Clintons shoulders. She may not win, but she must run. She must show that a woman can. She must like Geena Davis, make it imaginable.

For as Margaret Thatcher once so presciently remarked, "Men have not done such a good job, all of the time."