Obama, Clinton and identity politics

Clinton touched on identity politics in her speech Saturday in which she officially bowed out of the race, suspending her campaign and endorsing Obama. The speech was greeted with rapturous applause from both the Democratic Party leadership and the media.

Throughout her 28-minute address, Clinton presented her campaign as a pioneering effort for womens rights that, while falling short of the ultimate goal, nonetheless represented a step forward. As we gather here today, the 50th woman to leave this Earth is orbiting overhead, she declared. If we can blast 50 women into space, we will someday launch a woman into the White House.

In her most explicit embrace of a feminist rationale for her campaign, Clinton said, I was proud to be running as a woman, but I was running because I thought I would be the best president. But I am a woman, and like millions of women I know there are still barriers and biases out there, often unconscious, and I want to build an America that embraces and respects the potential of every last one of us. We must make sure that women and men alike understand the struggles of their grandmothers and their mothers and that women enjoy equal opportunities, equal pay and equal respect.