Madame Secretary? She's now Madame Chancellor!

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24. Mine, too!

Always loved Hillary. From the first moments I discovered her during the 1992 campaign.

She started getting attention as a spouse-of-candidate who was a power in her own right. When she said “I’m not just ‘standin’ by my man’ like Tammy Wynette,” I literally sat up and took notice.

“What??? A woman like that??? Who sounds like ME????? Where’s SHE been all my life??? Shit, I’d send HER money!!!”

I remember the big uproar that comment caused. Tammy Wynette got her nose outta joint and whined and sniped. Others harrumphed the now-standard put-down of any “uppity” woman who steps forward and speaks her mind, dammit: “who the hell does she think she is?”

And I remember thinking “who the hell does she think she is? How ‘bout First Lady-Elect, assholes? If not even HIGHER someday?” Heck, I was electrified at that moment! I couldn’t believe that a candidate’s wife was so strong, bold, and assertive that she’d say something like that (ESPECIALLY coming from Arkansas forcryingoutloud). I remember thinking “O. M. G. She is ME! That’s ME! She’s just like ME! Where can I sign up?!?!?” It was quite literally love at first sight.

And she WAS. I suddenly was amazed to start learning how much she WAS just like me. First of all, younger. Like me. Every First Lady or other such political wife was my mother’s age. Or even my grandmother’s age. Nah - really couldn’t quite relate to that on a personal basis. And she was a working woman. Like me. Had not just a job she loved but a career she loved. Like me. A working MOTHER. Like me. With a young kid. Like me. A working mother who dressed for the business world. Like me. Who was established and taken seriously in a previously all-male/male-dominant world. Like me. Hers was the legal profession while mine was broadcasting. College graduate. Like me. An equal partner in her marriage. Like me. Had even kept her own last name for a long time in her professional life. Like me.

I’d never experienced that before. Even with Jackie Kennedy - who back then was the outlier young political wife in a sea of older (and often frumpier) candidates’ wives - who mostly “stayed home and baked cookies and had teas” and were all “MRS. Somebody”, of value strictly because of who her husband was, instead of being significant on her own. Even Jackie was a “mom-type” for me, since at that time, I was only a few years older than Caroline Kennedy. Hillary, on the other hand, was a frontline warrior in her own right. Like I wanted to be, someday. And she instantly became a role model for me, and she still is.

And I NEVER liked Tammy Wynette.