Don’t denigrate experience as first lady

I have been watching with keen interest the primaries and caucuses that will ultimately produce at least two candidates for the office of president of the United States. Both the process and the people are fascinating and, as one who lost the ability to cast her first official ballot for John F. Kennedy due to his assassination, I have waited more than 40 years for candidates who are competent leaders as well as inspiring and decent human beings.

And I must say, I think several of the candidates are all of those things, particularly on the Democratic side. Indeed, after what must be truly the most failed American presidency in at least a century, it is uplifting to hear from so many people who have integrity and a clear sense of the dramatic changes that must be made for our country to regain respect in the world and to be the compassionate enablers we should be to our own people who deserve better lives here at home.

It is comforting to know that we would be well-served by any of the top three Democratic hopefuls and, failing that, perhaps even by John McCain, a man whose values we know and understand unequivocally, however much we might disagree with some of them.

Nevertheless, I feel compelled to speak for Hillary Clinton as the candidate who is, I believe, the strongest in the field.

Clinton's experiences as a senator and as an activist first lady in both Arkansas and Washington are unmatched by any of her competitors. Having been a university president for 17 years, I know the importance of the spousal role. There is no more informed or formidable person in any president's life than his or her spouse.

To minimize or denigrate Hillary Clinton's experience as first lady is simply naive: she knows the agonies and the ecstasies firsthand in a way no other person but the president him- or herself can know them. She also knows the strength and energy the role requires in a way no other person can because she lived beside that leader day in and day out for 16 years -- a veritable lifetime in politics.

Sen. Clinton is also an "insider" in a positive way -- not in the way her critics wish to paint her as a symbol of the status quo, but in the way we need an "insider." She has friends and colleagues inside the beltway and out, as any president must. Surely we learned that Jimmy Carter -- the most decent of men -- failed as a president primarily because he did not have those connections.

Negotiations and reaching consensus with respected colleagues for the betterment of the country is only possible when one has developed these relationships, and Hillary has done that in each of her roles, often across party lines.

And yes, by god, she is a woman. And isn't it about time, folks? In a period when women rulers are emerging all over the world -- and in some cases sacrificing their very lives for the chance at democratic leadership -- how can we not see that it might finally be the time for a highly qualified and experienced woman to be our nation's leader?

It is that time, and Hillary Clinton is the right candidate.

Carol C. Harter is president emerita, Regents professor and executive director of the Black Mountain Institute at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.