Hillary Clinton has shot through the glass ceiling to become the first woman presidential nominee -- changing the American political narrative.
There is a degree of pregnant symbolism in the victory. The often misused adjective, “historic,” was seldom so apt as on Tuesday when Hillary Rodham Clinton used the expression twice to celebrate her triumph over Bernie Sanders in the California primary.
And she has celebrated her achievement without sounding overly euphoric. Well and truly has the former first lady crafted history; she is the first woman in the American narrative to capture the presidential nomination of the Democrats.
True the contest against Sanders was far less challenging than the one against Barack Obama eight years ago; but this ought not to detract from the watershed achievement.
Carried to its logical fruition, Clinton has only the November election to countenance to attain the consummation she so devoutly wishes. Profound must be the implications in terms of social history.
Ever since George Washington was elected President of a newly independent America in 1789, it has been a long haul before a woman could emerge as the “presumptive nominee.”
Ergo, it is still a long battle ahead for the proponents of gender equality, and in the fountain-head of democracy. There are certain inherent challenges that will confront her ... assuming that she steps into the White House.
From the political prism, her husband had led the country at a more propitious juncture -- in the aftermath of the fall of the Berlin Wall and more accurately the end of the Cold War, before the horror of horrors on 9/11, and in the midst of impressive economic growth and low inflation.
Not so, however, Clinton -- international relations and the world in the larger perspective are far more complex; even the leadership of the U.S. has been open to question in the face of grave crises, most notably in the Arab world.
She cannot be unaware of the contretemps along the trail. There is little doubt that she has struggled to present herself as being a certain distance away from the “Washington elite” and Establishment, derided all too frequently by the likes of Donald Trump.
The major reason for what can be described as the primary victory is her track record as Secretary of State when she was able to blend her work rate -- regarded as “phenomenal” -- with remarkable clarity in her analytical and diplomatic skills.
The critical challenge now will be economic, indeed to make globalization and technological progress meaningful for the “everyday American,” whom she claims to represent. If her campaign presentations are any indication, realism will be accorded precedence over radicalism.
This is clear from her signal of intent on public policy, specifically to break up oligopolies, and reform the education and welfare segments. None of these ideas are particularly original. And over the next five months, she will be expected to take her candidacy to a new level.
