With her head held high

Hillary Rodham Clinton finally conceded today, graciously and warmly, throwing her full support to Barack Obama.

Now that the infighting between the two is over, a civil war within the Democratic family that certainly caught me up in it as much as it did anyone, it's time to stand back and view her candidacy more objectively. We who supported Obama have tended to view everything through a single prism -- how did each of Clinton's actions affect Obama's chances in November? We tended to disregard the historical significance of her campaign, the first serious -- and very nearly successful -- attempt by a woman to become President of the United States.

To her female supporters, and especially to those over the age of 45 or so, supporting Hillary meant more than choosing the strongest candidate to oppose McCain in November, although they certainly believed that's what she'd be. Her vigorous battle for the nomination was also a celebration of their successes in their own careers, and an emotional compensation for their failures and humiliations -- careers spent fighting against male bosses and fellow employees who would simply never take them seriously.

For these women, this was an emotional campaign, displaying rawer and less joyful emotions than those demonstrated by Obama's exuberant youngsters. And it wasn't just her supporters who had a psychological stake in her campaign. While Hillary had succeeded well in a man's world, she, too, was a female who had suffered her own set-backs and humiliations throughout life.

For me, it's easy to forget this aspect of her campaign. I live in a state where the governor is a woman, and where both U.S. Senators are women. Our last governor was a Chinese-American male, and my county's last chief executive was a black male. Over the decades, Washingtonians have become so used to diversity that we often forget -- we're the only state, so far as I'm aware, that has ever had women serving as governor and as both senators, all at the same time.

Diversity of this sort is not the rule in most of the nation.

Gail Collins has written a moving and intelligent column in today's New York Times, entitled "What Hillary Won." She concludes:

So many battles against prejudice are won when people get used to seeing women and minorities in roles that only white men had held before. By the end of those 54 primaries and caucuses, Hillary had made a woman running for president seem normal.

And this was, in fact, a major victory. Regardless of Ms. Clinton's future success or lack of success electorally, it may well be the accomplishment for which history gives her the greatest credit. Viewed from this perspective, her achievement was worth forcing her campaign through every primary, all the way to June. She may have created some temporary problems for Obama's campaign, but she showed that a woman can fight for her political goals and for her ideals as fiercely and as forcefully as any man. She didn't surrender the castle. She fought until superior forces overcame it, and defeated her in battle.

At times, I may have questioned her judgment in fighting so long and so fiercely. I may have been irked by her personality. That's all right. There have been few male leaders in history whose judgment couldn't also be called into question. There have been few who did not have their obnoxious moments. Hillary Clinton didn't set out to prove that she was superior to every man alive. She sought to prove that she was their equal.

In my mind, at least, she succeeded. An historical campaign, one that will be long remembered. To be governed by strong women, as well as by strong men, will from now on seem as normal to most of the country as it does already to those of us living in Washington state.

Hillary's future path may still lead to the presidency. If not, the woman who first does become president will do so by standing on her shoulders, by harvesting the crop that Hillary has sowed. That in itself is a remarkable and respectable legacy for her to leave to the nation.

And now, on to November!