ranting at the Times

It's hard to say away from the national elections. At some point when my schedule clears (enough so I can see over my desk) I'd like to spend more time exploring local activists and politics. Nonetheless, I read something every week that sparks an idea, a thought or an outrage.
In this Sunday's New York Times magazine (7-14-07) Matt Bai made a grievous error in his rush to make a point. His article, "What Does It Take?" seeks to explore the lack of "Washington experience" that the current candidates have. His thesis, however, delves more deeply into why a lack of experience is palatable for the American people. His point is a good one, but he lost me with this statement, " Today most of the leading presidential candidates have other kinds of experience that are arguably just as relevant to the presidency as years logged in statehouses or the Capitol--living at the White House..."

LIVING AT THE WHITE HOUSE????? Thank you Mr. Bai for acknowledging that there might be "other kinds of experiences" that make a candidate viable for the highest office, but to reduce Hillary Clinton's contribution to the Clinton Administration (or any First Lady's contribution to the presidency for that matter) to a mere "living at the White House" is outrageous. The role of the First Lady is tremendous and Hillary carried a full calendar both as an international ambassador and policy wonk. Actually, the chief complaint of her time living in the White House was that she was too involved. Hillary was so involved, and dare I say, effective that she was subject to a full scale GOP attack that she weathered with quite a bit of grace.

This involved role of the First Lady is not new, Lady Bird Johnson took the beautification committee to the next level ensuring the protection and expansion of wild areas and flowers. I won't even go into the role of sweet Mrs. Roosevelt.
I for one am not going to let the media get away with reducing our contributions to politics. Within the walls that have been set around us women have done great things. So many, in fact that we have our first female candidate for president who might actually get the nomination and quite frankly, she's the most qualified candidate for the job.