Wisdom worth sharing, words worth remembering.
You can't leave out half the world's experience and expect to address all the problems. Women communicate differently and process information differently which leads them to resolve conflicts differently.
That's not to say that women's priorities are better than men's. Rather when women are empowered when they can speak from the experience of their own lives they often address different previously neglected issues. And families and whole communities benefit.
As women slowly gain power their values and priorities are reshaping the agenda. A multitude of studies show that when women control the family funds they generally spend more on health nutrition and education – and less on alcohol and cigarettes.
Part of Obama's persona is self-reliance. He's calm he's cool he's self-possessed. In many ways he has tried to define himself in opposition to Clinton's sometimes needy often undisciplined emotionalism.
Obama has made America cool again – and more than that he's made his own brand arguably the most powerful the world has ever known.
When I joined Bill Clinton's start-up presidential campaign in 1991 I was confident that women would play an ever more important role but I never gave a minute's thought to what would happen if we won. When we did – and I became the first woman to serve as White House press secretary – it changed my life. But it didn't change the world.
Washington is still very much a male-oriented culture. Being from Los Angeles I think it is less so there – there is less attachment to tradition perhaps there is more flexibility more acceptance of change generally. That is partly because of Hollywood.
The fight is always the same within the Democratic Party isn't it? The more things change the more they stay the same.
Women have a lot of power in private life. There are many men who would say 'Hey women already rule my life.' But with women more is more. The more there are the more the world gets used to seeing them. We change the culture. We begin to expand options and lead and manage.
After I left the White House I kept a foothold in the business of American politics as a talk-show host analyst commentator speechmaker and occasional writer. I was no longer a practitioner but I was still a partisan a Democrat a blue-stater through and through.
There are people in the public sector with a range of experiences that have no equivalent in business but are essential to governing like keeping a kid in school or helping someone get and hold a job. The value of those skills can't easily be measured against a bottom line.
Palin was a political Hail Mary a long bomb in the closing minutes of a game that John McCain and Co. were certain to lose. They didn't care if she had the policy or political or emotional capacity to serve as vice president let alone president. They were willing to drive the country off a cliff if that's what it took to win.