When the lifelong feminist and former president of NARAL endorsed When the lifelong feminist and former president of NARAL endorsed John Edwards over a year ago, she was careful to give Hillary Clinton her due as the first woman to have a serious shot at the presidency. Indeed, in an interview with Salon, Michelman admitted she had been tempted to support Clinton:
Hillary's run is historic. And there was a certain part of me that said, "How could you not be a part of this given all you've worked for?" And I do think it is really exciting and important and Hillary is a very fine candidate. But, again, for me, John's vision was very compelling. And women are not going to vote only because we have a woman running, but rather look at who will do the most for women and families. That's not to say that Hillary or Barack or Bill Richardson won't do good things for women. I just don't think it's an automatic vote [for Hillary] because you're a woman, though many women [may] feel they have to support the first woman candidate. Women will also be looking at the candidates' views, and at whether the candidates will lead them in the way they want to be led. I've never been known to do the expected, I suppose.
That's why it's all the more notable that in her new endorsement of Barack Obama yesterday, Michelman doesn't mention Hillary Clinton, or women's leadership, at all. Indeed, she hardly mentions any specific feminist issues, with the exception of these paragraphs:
When I endorsed John Edwards for president, I did so because I was confident he would help lift women out of poverty and protect a woman's right to make her own decisions about if or when to have a family. I was confident that if John were in the White House, the single mother, who was working two jobs, living paycheck to paycheck, and worried about health care and child care, would have more influence than the well-healed corporate CEO armed with a team of lobbyists.
And when I endorsed John Edwards I also knew that Barack Obama shared every one of these concerns, and over the course of Barack's own campaign, the nation has come to believe in him just like I always have as well.
It seems like over the course of this primary, Michelman has become more and more comfortable with supporting a man with a woman in the race.
--Dana Goldstein
