Earlier today, President-elect Barack Obama announced his nomination of Sen. Hillary Clinton for the position of Secretary of State. Sadly, the first thing I thought when she stepped up to the podium was that someone should have lowered the microphones because they blocked her face. The second thing I thought was that it’s pretty awesome that a woman can go from being First Lady to being selected for one of the top positions in our government. Sure, Hillary has always had her own agenda, and she wasn’t just deciding what the chef would cook for dinner when she lived in the White House with Bill, but even so, it’s nice to know that a woman can go from being known primarily as the wife of our country’s leader to being known as a leader in her own right, even if she doesn’t hold the country’s top spot. [Change.gov]

Hillary Clinton laid pretty low following her withdrawal from the Presidential campaign back in June, although her historic run was somewhat overshadowed in the last leg of the race by Sarah Palin’s vice presidential bid. Now comes news that Clinton is a strong contender for secretary of state, replacing Condoleezza Rice. At the same time, a new New York essay asserts Clinton and Palin have set women back. Together, the author says, the women seemingly fit two sexist female stereotypes—The Bitch and The Ditz. I don’t entirely disagree with writer Amanda Fortini’s assessment of Palin’s mental prowess, but I do think she not only sells Clinton short, but misjudges her impact entirely—and that history will soon prove otherwise.

We all know sexism is alive and well in America.  Hollywood’s seemingly endless celebration of the chubby, schlubby, slacker dude is sexist as hell, given that chubby, schlubby, slacker girls get nowhere in Tinseltown, least of all the big screen. And yes, much of the media’s coverage of Hillary Clinton’s campaign was sexist too—and I wasn’t even a Hillary supporter, so this isn’t just a P.U.M.A.’s bitterness talking.

The latest accusation of sexism in the media comes from Governor Sarah Palin, the Vice Presidential nominee for the McCain campaign. Her supporters, her spokespeople, and conservative commentators like Bill O’Reilly assert that she is the target of sexist smear campaign. This is surprising for two reasons: 1) O’Reilly has consistently pooh-poohed claims of sexism in the past and 2) wasn’t it only a few months ago that Palin said Clinton should “stop whining” about sexism herself?

Politicians aren’t exactly known for having musical taste, but you would expect the people who throw big events like, I dunno, the Democratic National Convention, would do a better job of picking cool music to introduce some of their most important speakers. That’s why it struck me as an odd choice to have Hillary Clinton walk onto the stage two nights ago to the blaring accompaniment of Lenny Kravitz’s “Are You Gonna Go My Way?”, “You Really Got Me” by The Kinks, and “American Girl” by Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers. Now, I have nothing against the latter two songs (I could take or leave Lenny), but the message of the songs themselves are predictable and a bit on the wimpy side considering the strength of Hillary’s campaign. That’s why we put together our own list of dream songs that should have played background to Hillary’s big moment. That list, plus what we hope Barack Obama will walk out to tonight, after the jump!

Full-disclosure: I did not vote for Hillary Clinton, for a variety of reasons, none of which I’ll get into here. But as a female, I was happy to see how close a woman got to winning the nomination, even though I didn’t personally want her to win it. After watching her speech last night at the Democratic National Convention, which I found to be profoundly moving, funny, and strong, I was struck by how important her role in this election truly was—love her or hate her, Clinton had an immense impact on history, as the first woman who almost captured the nomination for President of the United States. “My mother was born before women could vote,” Clinton said. “But in this election my daughter got to vote for her mother for president.”

Now that the Presidential primary race is over and the general election is underway, members of the media are looking back on their coverage of Hillary Clinton and trying to decide if they were sexist or not. Clark Hoyt, a writer for The New York Times takes his own employer to task and places a large amount of blame on Maureen Dowd, a columnist for the paper. Dowd was also named on the National Organization for Women’s Hall Of Shame list for her coverage of Clinton, which Hoyt describing as “loaded with language painting [Clinton] as a 50-foot woman with a suffocating embrace, a conniving film noir dame and a victim dependent on her husband.”

Every year, Family Circle magazine has a cookie-off among the potential first spouses’ recipes, and the vote often goes the same way as general election. In 2004, Teresa Heinz Kerry’s pumpkin spice cookies lost to Laura Bush’s oatmeal chocolate chunk cookies; in 2000, Laura’s Texas Governor’s Mansion Cowboy cookies beat Tipper Gore’s ginger snaps; and Hilary Clinton’s chocolate cookies beat Barbara Bush and Elizabeth Dole in the 1992 and 1996 elections. This year, Bill Clinton offers the Clinton family cook’s recipe for oatmeal cookies, Cindy McCain shares her (hopefully not plagiarized) recipe for oatmeal-butterscotch cookies, and Michelle Obama divulges the recipe for her children’s godmother Mama Kaye’s shortbread cookies. If Bill wins, does that put Hillary back in the running? [AFP]

UPDATE: It appears Bill Clinton’s recipe was stolen from Betty Crocker. Is nothing sacred? [Huffington Post]

We take everything we hear on Fox News with a grain of salt, but being that they’re only reporting on a story that’s in the upcoming issue of Vanity Fair, we’ll give this rumor a little credence. According to an expose on the former-President in VF, Clinton has been dilly-dallying with many women since leaving office, while he’s been on the road—on the road doing what? Promoting his book? Campaigning for his wife, Senator Hillary Clinton? The article also alleges he was “running with a fast crowd” which required an “intervention”. Ruh-roh. There’s also details of an affair with actress Gina Gershon, as well as a cursory mention of a transexual, though it’s unclear in what context. Yeah, so, not starting off to be a good news week for the Clintons, huh?

We’ve all wondered: What if women ruled the world?  While it may seem far fetched, we’ve already got a town—McLean, Texas. It’s got one stoplight and a whole lot of unstoppable women. Since 2007, the mayor, her five aldermen, the post office master, the justice of the peace, school principal, the bank, nursing home, and grocery store managers, are all large and in charge ladies. Even their staunchest of critics, aka their husbands, can’t help but notice the positive changes around their town. Now, with Hillary Clinton in the presidential race, they’re even thinking nationally. While Bill Reeves, local and spouse of Alderman Lynn Reeves, wouldn’t vote for one lady alone, he said if Clinton picked an all female cabinet like they have in McLean, he’d vote for her. “They’d do no worse, and there’s a chance of it being much better.” Now that’s girl power! [Salon]

Majorly adorable Saturday Night Live cast member and Baby Mama star, Amy Poehler, was on The Today Show this morning, and Meredith Viera just could not resist asking Amy if she talks in her sexiest Hillary Clinton voice for hubby Will Arnett. Her surprisingly prudish response, in the clip above.

We’ve all seen Sarah Silverman’s hilarious “I’m F*cking Matt Damon” video, as well as Jimmy Kimmel’s follow-up, “I’m F*cking Ben Affleck”, but did you know “Hillary Is F*cking Obama”? [You Tube]

Last week, fashion writer Hadley Freeman critiqued Hillary Clinton’s wardrobe. This week, she takes on the male presidential candidates’ sartorial choices. There aren’t as many options for men, but the cut of a suit can suggest a lot.

“Look at McCain, striding around in his boxy blue suits, single button always done up to cover the paunch, ties always just that little bit too wide,” Hadley writes. “This man could not look more establishment if he went around doing secret handshakes and butt-slapping Karl Rove.” In contrast, “Obama does not feel the need for such sartorial alpha-male armor and instead shows off his slimness. This is not a man who would engage in phallus-waving drinking matches with the boys down the ranch on a Saturday night, one suspects.”

All politics aside, we love how Obama wears a more modern cut. Otherwise, he might look like a 15-year-old kid wearing his father’s suit. [The Guardian, U.K.]

Yesterday at an event in support of Hillary Clinton (who was not present) a man asked Chelsea Clinton whether she thought the Monica Lewinski scandal affected her mother’s credibility. This is how Chelsea answered. Honestly, I have mixed feelings about whether or not that whole debacle should be addressed by Hillary and/or Bill, but I thought it was inappropriate to ask Chelsea how her father’s philandering affected her mom’s reputation. Chelsea has got class. I predict that if her mom doesn’t make it to the White House, she’ll be the U.S.‘s first woman President.

Does Hillary Clinton’s morning routine put her at a disadvantage? Michael Kinsley writes on Slate.com that Hillary probably spends at least 40 minutes getting ready in the morning, while her male opponents most likely spend around 20 minutes showering, shaving, and getting dressed. “Every day, seven days a week, for almost two years, the candidates campaign,” Kinsley writes. “The average day is probably 15 to 20 hours. The average amount of sleep could be four hours. And yet every day the male candidates can sleep an extra precious half-hour or more—or spend the time cramming for the day—simply because our culture doesn’t impose the same rules on them about their appearances.” But besides showering, which we assume she does alone, Hillary can have other people help her get ready for the day while she checks her email or memorizes a speech. But would Americans be okay knowing that their president has her own hair and makeup team who blow dry her hair and apply her natural-but-polished eyeliner and lipstick? Who knows, maybe the current president has his own glam-squad, and we just don’t hear about it. [Slate.com]

Every once and a while they publish these silly reports that show, through an extended family tree, just how famous people are related to each other. Last time the media latched on to a story like this, we found out Dick Cheney and Barack Obama were related. This time, the news is a lil’ better for ol’ Barry, as it seems he is a distant kin of Brad Pitt! Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton is somehow related to Angelina Jolie. Umm, question: how can we get our hands on this funny little blood line determining gizmo? We’d like to find out the likelihood of ever receiving a “Happy Holidays From The Jolie-Pitt Clan” card. [TrueMors]