Boo Hoo - Clinton can't have it both ways

I've been wanting to write about this for days - ever since it happened really - but real life and work seem to have a funny way of getting in the way.

Let's re-cap:

All the Democrats running for president were in a debate. A question came up about whether they were supportive of Governor Spitzer's (D-NY) plan to give legal, government-issued driver's licenses to illegal aliens. Each candidate got to say what they thought. Except Hillary. She was for it, sort of, against it, maybe, understood why he would propose it, I guess... In other words, she answered this question like all the others - she didn't. But this time was different - she wasn't let off the hook. The moderator (Tim Russert, I think) asked her to clarify her position. Her fellow candidates jumped on her for not having a "yes" or "no" answer. So finally she says she's for it.

Only to say the next day she wasn't. Or was it the other way around?

See, it doesn't matter. Because in typical "I want it all" Hillary-fashion, the next day she came out swinging. Or whining, actually. About how all the "boys" had ganged up on her.

What is appalling to me is not her stance on the issue (OK, it is actually, but it's not the point of this post) but on her immediate retreat to hide behind her own skirts. I got news for ya' lady - you think that the boys here in America are tough? Wait until you get onto the world's playground! You think the "boys" in Iraq, North Korea, Iran and China are going to treat you like a fragile little doll? If you can't handle debating with men who mostly agree with you, how are you going to defend America against the plots of the people who want to overthrow it?

It's completely offensive that the first words out of her mouth were about gender, and how she was essentially being picked on. Hard to imagine a real female leader crying like Hillary was. Bet you wouldn't have seen Golda Meir, Margaret Thatcher or Indira Gandhi pull that nonsense. They would put on their big girl panties and realize that they were leaders first, foremost and only.

Hillary can't have it both ways - she can't want to be the most powerful woman in the free world, and cry about how the boys are picking on her.