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comfortable in her skin. She has earned it many times over.
    What is familiar about this picture? A woman is sacrificed to her husband’s ambitions. Her personality is deformed. She takes almost all the flak in the press while he gets away with murder. You might almost say that she is taking the punishment for him—and for all women who step outside the lines prescribed for paper-doll political wives. Hillary Rodham Clinton looks more to me like Joan of Arc every day. She accepted being burned as a witch week in, week out, so her husband could rise in the polls. She often played the role of the scapegoat half of the Clinton duo, the rear end that got whipped so the smiling Clinton head could triumph. She was Iphigenia sacrificed for a propitious wind, Alcestis going across the Styx instead of her husband. She was the woman who endured humiliation and saved the marriage so that Bill Clinton could flourish. Bill Clinton owes Hillary. Big. The only difference between him and other guys is that he seems to know it.
    During the ongoing sexual scandal of the second term, Hillary Clinton grew to her full potential. Instead of looking foolish for defending Bill against charges of philandering, she looked like the only one in power who had a sense of proportion. It was as if she were president and he first husband. The strength and tenacity were clearly hers. She appeared to be supplying his backbone. And it was at that moment that Hillary’s fortunes definitively turned.
    As the president appeared less and less capable of impulse control, the first lady rose in our estimation. We still didn’t fully understand the terms of the marriage, but it was clear she was the one who held it all together. The strength of one woman had never impacted on our country more. Now, as senator, she has triumphed. Her hard work and wisdom have never been clearer. Yet she carries them off with humor and rare serenity. She has walked through the fire and emerged untouchable.
    I predict that Hillary Rodham Clinton is eventually going to make as much of a difference as her role model, Eleanor Roosevelt. By acting as a lightning rod for all of us, she has fully expanded the possible roles for American women. Perhaps her position remains controversial, but it may end up changing the course of women’s history. If America eventually has a woman president, the credit will be, in large part, Hillary’s. She is getting us ready to accept female leaders who don’t hide their brains. She has gotten us ready to accept women who talk back in public. She has single-handedly revolutionized the political marriage.
    I want to say, Bravo, Hillary; you’re the latest incarnation of Ms. Liberty. Thank you for enduring the slings and arrows of your outrageous fortune. Because of you, someday—as in Britain, Ireland, India, and Israel—even backward America will be able to elect a woman chief of state. It may even (Goddess willing) be you!

A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR
    This essay has gone through many incarnations. Originally, I wrote about Hillary for the New York Observer, then for The Sunday Times, then again for the New York Observer, then for What Do Women Want, my book of essays, and now for a new edition of my essay book.
    During that time, Hillary evolved from a controversial first lady into a popular and productive senator from New York, then a presidential candidate.
    The vicious criticism of her, however, has never stopped. It has only taken new forms—often from women.
    In the beginning she was trashed by the predictable female journalists who rose to power by attacking other women—a time-honored strategy. What gives with these dames? (I will not name them. They know who they are.) Don’t they know how hard it is to be a public woman? Is it the Queen Bee syndrome made famous by Claire Booth Luce? “I got up here. Now watch me kick any climber who tries to get to the top with me”? This is an old-fashioned shtick. Today’s young feminists know that