Essential Estrogen

Former Iowa First Lady Christie Vilsack is on a crusade built on friendship, wrapped with respect and bolstered by hope. It's a quest she hopes will end in November 2008 with Sen. Hillary Clinton being named the 44th President of the United States.

"I know a lot of people talk about [Clinton's] baggage," Vilsack told about 50 supporters who gathered for the grand opening of the Iowans for Hillary field office in Cedar Rapids. "Quite frankly, I love that she has that baggage. I love that she has those battle scars. Those let me know that she's been there and has the experience to lead us forward."

Vilsack's relationship with both the senator and former Pres. Bill Clinton, she says, was forged many years ago when Hillary shared an office with her brother, Tom Bell, in 1974 during the investigation of the Watergate scandal.

"I think knowing someone as they exhibit friendship is one of the best ways to know someone well," she said. "She told my brother back then that she was going to marry Bill Clinton and that he was going to be the next President of the United States."

Because of the friendship forged so many years ago, Vilsack says, the Clintons helped her and her husband, former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, when they began their first gubernatorial campaign. Now she and Tom are returning the favor.

"I believe we need something dramatic to send a message to the rest of the world that we are committed to changing course," she said. "I can't think of a more dramatic message than electing a woman president to let the world know we are no longer an adolescent nation."

In addition to sending up a flare to the rest of the world, Vilsack says, electing a woman president will also bring about needed change in both our domestic and international policies.

"Women are healers," she said. "And, Hillary Clinton with her unique set of experiences, is perfectly positioned to help heal our nation. She can pick up the phone on her first day of office and phone world leaders she already has a relationship with and be able to engage them.

"She can gather the former Presidents of our nation -- well, except for maybe the most recent -- and have the strength and confidence to send them to other nations and help our standing in the world."

Following her public remarks, Vilsack agreed to speak a few moments privately about how her experience as an educator meshes with her support of the New York senator.

"I see education as a keystone," she explained. "Everything begins there -- health care, good jobs, caring families, a solid economy, alternative fuels and much more. Education should be creative and innovative. We should be challenging the status quo and not raising a generation of people who excel at standardized testing."

Vilsack says she draws on her own life experiences -- prior to, during and after her time as a middle school and high school teacher -- while looking to the future.

"Leaving Iowa to pursue higher education in New York in 1968 was not common," she said. "We -- myself and the women who formed that class at Kirkland -- were pioneers. The things that we did then were innovative and outside of the status quo. Today, these are things which are a natural part of society."

Kirkland College in Clinton, N.Y. was established that year as a sister institution to Hamilton College. The faculty of the new venture thought seriously about what liberal arts education should be like for women and developed a curriculum that fostered independence, creativity and self-reliance. As an experimental institution, Kirkland offered programs that supplemented the traditional liberal arts curriculum. Students enrolled at either Hamilton or Kirkland, but selected courses from both institutions and shared facilities, such as the library. The two colleges later merged in 1978, six years after Vilsack graduated in 1972.

"I support pioneering ideas in education," she said. "Hillary Clinton is a pioneer as well and shares the vision of a high-quality and innovative educational system."

With a quick smile, Vilsack added it "didn't hurt" that Clinton saw Iowa's plan for early childhood education as a plan which could be implemented nationally. From nearly his first day as governor, Tom Vilsack -- often with Christie at his side -- pushed state legislators to increase funding and initiatives for early childhood education. In his first year of office, Vilsack succeeded in doubling state funding for early childhood education. When he left office, the number of Iowa children enrolled in preschool programs had increased by 63 percent.

During her public remarks, Vilsack hit the issue of health care, touched on Clinton's recent discussions of America's invisibles and struck the "girl power" chord.

"You know, in a few weeks we will be welcoming a daughter-in-law into our family," Vilsack confided. "One day we might be welcoming granddaughters too. When I look into their eyes -- when I look into any young woman's eyes -- I want to say 'I did this for you.' We did this for them because there's not one job in this country a woman can't have."