Women see Clinton job as triumph and disappointment

By Andrea Hopkins

CINCINNATI (Reuters) - In what was billed as the Year of the Women in U.S. politics, the choice of Hillary Clinton as President-elect Barack Obama's secretary of state somehow seems both more and less than her supporters had hoped for.

"I wouldn't say I'm mollified, I'm just happy she's got something she'll be good at," said Barbara Hynd, 69, a retired research scientist and Clinton fan in Cincinnati. "I think she would have made a good president."

Clinton's rise to one of the most powerful positions in her former rival's cabinet caps a year of dreams and disappointments for her often fervent supporters: Would the New York senator and former first lady be president? No. Would she be vice-president? Nope. Surely she'll be in his cabinet? Yes.

Is that good enough? Perhaps.

"I think it's great for Hillary, and we can all heave a sigh of relief that she's found a powerful perch," said Carol Jenkins, president of the Women's Media Centre in New York.

"I'd love to see her ... bring on Mideast peace. If anyone can do it, it's Hillary," Jenkins added.

While 2008 will go down in U.S. history as the year the country's first black president was elected, it will also be remembered for the election in which a woman nearly became the Democratic nominee for president and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin became the Republican party's first woman nominee for vice president.

The campaign was also marked by stereotypes of Clinton as the humourless harridan of the Democratic nominating contests and Palin as the know-nothing pretty face chosen to be Republican John McCain's running mate.