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Once again, Hillary Clinton rose to the occasion after her critics and even colleagues called for her to concede when she wasn’t ready to. She wanted to do it on her own terms.

Once again Hillary Clinton put her naysayers to shame by using class, professionalism, and natural charm, when she appeared on TV three days after Barack Obama had clinched the Democratic nomination. Many suspected that she should have immediately withdrawn her campaign pursuit and conceded to him the same night he won. But she did the contrary. Once again, she showed that she was still in charge of her destiny and her legacy. She had made a commitment to “her people” who had fought long and hard for her campaign trail to become the first woman president in the United States. She had made her mark, but she was not done yet. Clinton would concede on her own terms-not that of her overly critical constituents and media frenzy. The $64,000 question on their lips was, “Why didn”t she open her arms up to Obama immediately? That would’ve been the right thing to do!”

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But Hillary did the right thing! Her thing! She was not trying to still push her way into a nomination that she had obviously lost, which many of her critics accused her of doing. She was merely exercising her right to be human. She was hurt, disappointed and tired. To fight as hard and long as she had to the last state and the last minute, we should have readily allowed her to stop and exhale. Real humans need time to embrace someone with smiles and open arms that are rivals-someone who you’ve vigorously campaigned against for the past sixteen months. She wanted to be real-she needed time to settle her mind, her body, and her soul. She needed some much-deserved space.

The Private Meeting

To the chagrin of many, she called a private meeting with Barack Obama. Eluding the press, she secretly met in a fellow colleague’s home. She talked for about an hour to Barack. He talked back. They both listened to each other. Saturday, June 7, she was able to emerge from her 16-month cocoon to spread her beautiful wings and flap them in the wind to the tune of– “I am woman, hear me roar.”

She endorsed him and threw her full support behind him. She called for unity of the Democratic Party. She urged her followers to also embrace and back Mr. Obama, “so that children can now grow up taking for granted that and African American or a woman can become president of the United States.” She ended by saying, “though they weren”t able to shatter the highest, hardest glass ceiling this time, about 18 million cracks had been made by her followers, which allowed the light to shine through.’

Women at the Helm

Let’s not forget that Hillary Clinton was not being a trailblazer for women to become heads of state. She knew that there were some 50 women who had made that mark before her. The first female president in the world was Isabel Peron of Argentina. There were others, like Indira Gandhi, prime minister of India, Golda Meir, prime minister of Israel, Margaret Thatcher, prime minister of Great Britain, to name a few. Hillary fought so vigorously, so full of faith, because her predecessors had fought similar battles and won. She just felt that America’s time was now.