Clinton is blamed for being a two term success.

When the neo-dems complain about Bill losing the House and Senate in 1994 It's like blaming Blair and Brown for losing local council elections.

she both found her groove and let loose her raging id, turning herself into a character at once awful and wonderful

The Hillary I encounter a few minutes after Obama leaves the building is somber, prideful, dark-humored, aggrieved, confused--and still high on the notion that she is leading an army, Napoleon in a navy pantsuit and gumball-size fake pearls. She is keenly aware of the weird dynamics in play as she contemplates her endgame: Albeit temporarily, the loser has more power than the winner. She, not Obama, is in a position to bring the party together or rip the thing to shreds. She, not he, has the capacity to orchestrate a merger of their warring factions of supporters.

Oh my.

When they first spy each other in the corridor, Clinton hugs the wall deferentially to let Obama pass; their brief tête-à-tête only ensues at the latter's instigation. When the chat is over and the nominee strides toward the freight elevator to make his exit, his Secret Service agents brusquely shoo away Clinton's aides: "Stand aside for Senator Obama! Make way for Senator Obama!"

Clinton, in fact, makes no bones about the matter when we speak. "I'm not a very comfortable public figure," she explains. "I don't particularly like the attention. I like the work. I like the sense of forward movement and progress. At the end of the day, what I'm interested in is what we've done that actually moves the agenda forward."

I was very ticked about the misogyny stuff at first but it was Clinton's policies that brought me onboard with her.  Witnessing the daily dynamic in quotes above caused me to feel ever more loyal to her.  Look, if you are a woman, an "illegal" alien in this country, a gay or transgender person in this country....the above is how we live our lives every single day and that's the best we can do.  AND we must always believe in ourselves because if we don't we are sunk and there are people out there who mean to sink us and all they feel about it is justification.

Was Clinton engaged in an ill-conceived effort to strong-arm Obama into putting her on the ticket? Was she being supremely Machiavellian? Or had she simply lost her mind?

I thought it nice to see Hillary getting positive coverage for once. And he's right: her coalition is broad and deep and she got stronger and stronger as the campaign continued. She truly has reached iconic stature through sticking it out and getting better in the face of tremendous adversity: a media against her and an opponent with a superior political organization who can outspend her 2 or even 3-1.

I personally think her achievement was remarkable, I'm proud of her, and I agree with the author who considers that she may actually have replaced "Reagan Democrats" with "Hillary Democrats."

I haven't felt this way about a political figure in my lifetime. I am stunned that Hillary Clinton won not only my vote but my admiration and abiding respect. And I think that's true for a lot of us.

People talk a lot about Obama's "phenomenon" but Hillary has matched him on that. It's just that the superdelegates chose to hand the crown to Obama--unfortunately, probably, for the Democratic party. The writer "gets that."

All in all, I really think the writer's respect and admiration for her comes through--and she makes some astute and candid points about the race and the challenges of the general election.

i actually happened to agree with the author's characterization of sen. obama as appearing not poigniently human. if anything, he comes across as totally disconnected from the rest of us. whether that's merely a facade, to make himself appear "intellectual", or that's his real personality, i haven't a clue.

There's no doubt that Hillary Clinton emerged from the primary season as a powerful symbol for many people, not just for her supporters, but also for her detractors. Yes, that ability to tick people off and provoke them to loathe you is just as powerful as the one where you inspire their love, respect and support.

She and Obama both seem to have become (willingly or not) fonts into which many pour their dreams and aspirations for what a president should be (whether the actual candidate always measures up or not). That's icon territory. Look at McCain. Does he inspire this? I don't see it. Maybe it's the "historic first" nature of the candidacies, but I think it's more than that. I think each of these people, themselves, embody this quality.

How icon-power translates into pragmatic political influence remains to be seen.

How, in her diminishment, she became huge--an instant icon with more cultural potency than her husband. On the day after her final defeat, the unlikeliest of populist heroes discusses what exactly happened to turn her from wonk to phenom.

In her own right, she's as much a transformational figure as Obama.  

"Barack Obama--reared by a single mother, married to a strong-willed woman, father of two daughters--has an unblemished record of support for the goals of the mainstream women's movement. Yet, according to a Wall Street Journal/NBC poll taken over the weekend Clinton withdrew, in a hypothetical matchup with John McCain-- whose record with respect to those goals ranges from indifference to hostility--she would win among white suburban women and Obama would lose."