Daniel Lubetzky

As poignant as when Senator Clinton spoke about how her own Mother was born before women had a right to vote, today when she endorsed Barack Obama with the same tenacity as she displayed during her campaign, she shared an anecdote that encapsulated the historical significance of her campaign:

To all those women in their 80s and their 90s, born before women could vote, who cast their votes for our campaign…

I’ve told you before about Florence Steen of South Dakota, who was 88 years old and insisted that her daughter bring an absentee ballot to her hospice bedside.

Her daughter and a friend put an American flag behind the bed and helped her fill out the ballot.  She passed away soon after and under State law her ballot didn’t count.

But her daughter later told a reporter, "my Dad is an ornery old cowboy and he didn’t like it when he heard Mom’s vote wouldn’t be counted.  I don’t think he’d voted in 20 years,  but he voted in place of my Mom.

Besides the historical progress referenced above, Clinton also spoke powerfully about human potential, underlining why so many women and men have rallied behind her and Senator Obama’s campaigns:

To the Moms and Dads who came to our events, who lifted their little girls and little boys on their shoulders and whispered in their ears, ‘see, you can be anything you want to be.’

She concluded:

There are no acceptable limits and there are no acceptable prejudices in the 21st Century.