Yesterday, America lost one of only two women in American history to marry a president and give birth to one as well. The Benjamin Button of First Ladies (aka: looked better the older she got), Barbara Ann Bush died at the age of 92.

Now I don’t remember many details about her (the main thing I remember was thinking she was HW Bush’s mother at first), but from what I have heard and read, she seemed like a pretty reasonable person. She was a far more moderate person than what we see as Republicans today. She was pro-choice and didn’t want gay people to burn in hell. So that is sort of good. Of course she called Geraldine Ferraro a bitch, so that is not necessarily progressive. Anyways…..

Obviously in the wake of her death, the media will eulogize her to no end. There is nothing inherently wrong with this, since she has always been sort of a caring and motherly figure in American history. But this got me to thinking how the people in the political world handle Hillary Clinton when she passes.

Typically First Ladies stand off in the corner, do some charity work, are exalted in the public’s eye mainly because…well…they seem so apolitical. People like that in their women. Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, was most certainly not. Whether you like her or not (and there are reasons to be on either side of this), she was sort of a symbol, a trendsetter of sorts, that transitioned the idea from traditional women obligations (eg: Barbara Bush) to a more modern day and ambitious female.

And people still hate her for it.

I don’t think there has been or will be in my lifetime someone so hated and reviled so disproportionately as Hillary Clinton. Sure, we all hate Jeffery Dahmer more (I think), but he ate people. Hillary never did anything to deserve the level of disdain she has faced in her entire life. Yes, she is not good on camera, she is more wooden than Gregory Peck, and maybe she did some things that were not on the up-and-up (like pretty much every politician who ever existed!!!), but the utter bile she has had to deal with is odd and quite unfair.

So we have a woman from a wealthy New England family, related to Franklin Pierce no less, marry young, and assume a very straight forward and safe life, get extolled today. And rightly so.

Let’s see how people handle a self-made woman from a middle class family in Chicago who tried very hard to bust through a glass ceiling her entire life when she passes.