IN early January, I wrote an email to my regular list of friends including some ladies about the US presidential election. I remember telling them that I was rooting for Hillary Clinton to be the next American President.

It was a clamour for change, more than anything else really. I thought it was about time too that a woman holds the most powerful political office on the planet. I would love to observe the performance of a woman as the commander-in-chief of the most powerful army in the world.

In my mail, I also wrote that I love women and have the greatest respect for them. And why not! When I first opened my eyes into this world, there were seven women looking after me — my six elder sisters and my mother. How lucky can any baby get!

So then I was confident that Hillary Clinton would get the Democratic nomination and eventually, the White House. Let a woman lead the United States of America for once! In January, Hillary was the front-runner in the race for the Democratic ticket but she started lagging behind in March.

This week, I joined 18 million Americans who supported the former first lady in her bid for the presidency in facing the grim reality. Barack Obama finally obtained the magic number to be the nominee for the Democratic Party and Hillary has lost.

On Tuesday night, Obama, 46, passed the threshold of 2,118 delegates needed for the nomination to become the first black candidate to head a major-party ticket in US history. Throughout a five-month campaign spanning 54 contests, he shattered fund-raising records, out-organised Hillary Clinton and galvanised millions of new voters.

But I like what both of them said on Tuesday night.

Obama paid lavish tribute to Hillary. “She’s a leader who inspires millions of Americans with her strength, her courage and her commitment to the causes that brought us here tonight. Our party and our country are better off because of her, and I am a better candidate for having had the honour to compete with Hillary Rodham Clinton,” said Obama.

Hillary responded, “This has been a long and hard-fought campaign, but as I have always said, my differences with Senator Obama are small compared to the differences we have with Senator (John) McCain and the Republicans.”

Hillary also had kind words for her adversary even as she put off a concession.

“It has been an honour to contest these primaries with him, just as it is an honour to call him my friend,” she said.

Why I favour Hillary is that a woman president of the United States is very different from other women leaders around the world we had in the past.

The world had her first female prime minister as early as 1960 when Mrs Sirimavo Bandaranaike of Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) succeeded her husband who was assassinated. Then we had Indira Ghandi of India, Golda Meir of Israel, Kim Campbell of Canada, Helen Clark of New Zealand, Cory Aquino and Gloria Arroyo of the Philippines, Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan, Megawati Sukarnoputri of Indonesia, and many more.

Except for Margaret Thatcher of Great Britain, and perhaps German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the rest were leaders of developing and less developed countries, not superpowers.

Hillary Clinton as US president would have been the highest political achievement for a woman. But it was not to be.

Nonetheless, Hillary has paved the way to the White House for women for the first time.

Because of her bid, albeit unsuccessfully, AFP reported that 80 per cent of American women now believe she has made it easier for women to run for the White House.

Hillary Clinton’s courage and tenacity during the 17-month campaign has for the first time in US history proven that a woman can be a viable candidate for the Oval Office, and has garnered the respect and recognition of Democratic and Republican voters alike.

Regardless of party affiliation, 76 per cent of women and 66 per cent of men believe Hillary’s campaign has made it easier for women to aspire the White House, a CBS News poll showed. By party, 75 per cent of Democrats and 63 per cent of Republicans believed as much.

“She is the face of women’s rights in America today as a consequence of her campaign. Her loss shouldn’t diminish the fact her candidacy showed what women can accomplish. Now that she’s done it, it’s more likely someone else can too,” said political science professor Susan Carroll.

“People said a woman may not be tough enough. She was tough enough. They said she can’t raise money or talk about foreign affairs. She did,” said former Democratic House of Representatives member Barbara Kennell.

Although Hillary did not make it to the Number One spot, I am still hoping that she could at least be the Number Two by becoming Obama’s running mate for vice-president. I hope Obama would seriously consider that.

For the Democratic party, that is the dream ticket. Clinton’s campaign chairman, Terry McAuliffe, told MSNBC television that an Obama-Clinton ticket would be “unstoppable”.

He added: “I think we would have the White House for 16 years.”

With such confidence from the Democratic faithful, it would be difficult to understand why the Obama-Clinton ticket should not be finalised as early as possible if the party hopes to regain the White House after eight years of George W Bush.

To Hillary supporters like me, that is to say selfishly a kind of consolation prize.

God bless Hillary Clinton. God bless women.

(Comments can reach the writer at paulsir99@hotmail.com)