Hillary Clinton

I was thinking today that the one Obama cabinet pick that has worked out impressively is Hillary Clinton; I think she is a really solid Secretary of State. Then I thought that when all is said and done, Clinton may well have to be considered the most significant woman ever to participate in American public life, even if she never becomes President. The combination of her impact and her actual power has scarcely been equaled, except perhaps by Sandra Day O'Connor.

Other women who might be considered in this context (I'm sure I'm missing some):

First Ladies: Abigail Adams, Dolly Madison, Eleanor Roosevelt, Jackie Kennedy, Lady Bird Johnson, Nancy Reagan

Office and Title Holders: Nancy Pelosi, Dianne Feinstein, Barbara Jordan, Shirley Chisholm, Bella Abzug, Jeannette Rankin, Madeleine Albright, Jeanne Kirkpatrick, Condoleezza Rice

Journalists and Reformers: Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Jane Addams, Ida Tarbell, Rachel Carson, Dorothea Dix, Rosa Parks, Helen Keller, Coretta Scott King, Clara Barton, Mother Jones, Gloria Steinem, Betty Friedan, Barbara Walters