An open letter to Hillary

Mrs Clinton, P.S. Ever since you launched your candidacy for the presidency of the United States, I was not so enthusiastic; I have never really been a fan of yours, especially since that fatidic incident of your husband back in 1995.

Granted, he was at the time, the president of the United States, but no reason from my point of view for you to put up with him and his philandering ways.

Then, I was expecting you to divorce him ipso facto and, for starters, show your daughter that we, women of pride, do not put up with that. Unless we agree that women can also do the same, but, then again, what to do with the concept of "family".

And, for that main reason, as you started your campaign, I basically thought that you wouldn't win.

Being from a conservative background, I saw barely a chance for you to move your base-constituency, because you missed your opportunity.

In my view, it would have helped if you had decided to divorce then and there your philandering husband, regardless of him being the most powerful man in the world, or maybe I should say because he was the most powerful man on Earth.

My rationale goes as follows, especially after listening to your concession speech supporting Senator Obama's bid for the presidency. You said any woman now can become Commander-in-Chief. I happen to disagree, because any Commander-in-Chief would not have been humiliated by his wife for cheating on him with another man.

That's the difference, Clinton, you could have shown early enough to your daughter and women worldwide that we women, do not put up with men humiliating us in front of the whole world, because no wife of the Commander-in-Chief would have ever cheated on him and been caught. Thus, he would not have been humiliated in front of the whole world.

So, when people say that the situation of women in the United States is better than elsewhere, I beg to disagree. For it to be better, women have to understand that, unapologetically, they are a force representing a minority, to be reckoned with, and therefore, a force that can and must unite if their voices are not only to be counted in the elections but rather to be dreaded as well as a political power player.

It was pathetic to see that the very last weekend before your giving up your ambition to become the next president of the United States, the weekend box-office had a record-breaking $55.7 million for Sex and the City. Imagine all those women who poured each of their $12.50 to see the film...? As my son Gabriel Benador said, had all those women poured those $12.50 into your campaign, you would be now instead of Senator Obama trying still to become the first woman president of the United States.

No longer safe

Which brings us to the problem of values in our society, where school-age children now learn of drugs at age 9, and where we, parents, find that our children are no longer safe even if they attend the most exclusive private schools, because we are all too aware that alcohol, sex, drugs, are spreading out at light-speed.

You were by far more experienced than Obama. As you said in your exit speech, you were "in the field" for four decades and the 46-year old senator has a career in the senate that's barely four-year old!

After your departure from the presidential wannabe scene, another pathetic, surreal moment of these transition days came, when pundits on TV were finally wishing to "hear what Obama's agenda is on health, education, social security, national security, foreign affairs, and so on, because we have not yet heard any of those!"

So, we lost you. You did have an agenda for everything! And American women, driven by jealousy or envy and total lack of vision in understanding that for once we could have had a woman president like so many other countries have already had did not rally around you.

And I am arguing all this not because you are a woman but because you were by far the best of the three candidates.

After that missed opportunity, let me give my personal analysis on your chances on becoming Obama's running mate. I fear it won't happen.

Already Senator Kennedy chose him over you. Meaning that he does not want you to become president and that's why he chose Obama. And, if only out of loyalty, Obama most likely won't choose you to run with him.

You were not my favourite, but from the three guys, you certainly won me, the known neo-conservative advocate now turned independent, over them. And, more even so throughout the lengthy campaign that you so stoically run, showing the passion and endurance that only women have. But your candidacy was not a success by far, not for you and not for women in this country. That's the truth.

Eliana Benador, an independent writer, is based in New York and Zurich.