Lunch with Hillary and 899 other friends

MAKING HISTORY WITH HILLARY: Thus was billed my lunch with Hillary Clinton when we met at San Francisco's Palace Hotel when she stopped in the city recently to visit long-time friend Susie Tompkins Buell. I should mention that there were 899 other women and some men sharing the occasion with the senator, too, and that my godchild, Nancy Cutler, paid the $250 for my presence at the box lunch: Kyo Crab California Rolls, grilled and chilled chicken salad, local lettuces, Indian Woman beans, feta cheese bathed in a great Caesar dressing, "Palace Hotel Ultimate Cookie"; a bottle of water and organic foods requested by the guest of honor.

But we were indeed making history: Hillary, the current front-runner for president in 2008, and some of the women in the audience were born when women could not vote. Women's "suffrage" -- a word I never liked the sound of, but it means not only the vote, but also "loud applause" -- finally arrived in 1920. And there certainly was loud applause for Hillary, who after eight years in the White House, spoke knowledgeably about current issues and how she learned there and later as a senator that the executive branch of our government must work collegially with Congress to forward solutions to pressing problems including health care, education, contraceptives funding, affordable housing, our environment and global warming.

IN ANSWER TO QUESTIONS, she said "Yes, we've got to stop the war in Iraq." Mindful of an intelligent person's right to change his or her mind upon obtaining more information and experience, I thought her response "Yes, I voted with Congress to give President Bush authority to use military action in Iraq in 2002, but if I'd known then what I know now, I would not have." showed some common sense. Hillary was in Baghdad recently.

The candidate is thinner and taller than she appears on TV (I've heard it said TV adds 10 pounds). Wearing a gray pantsuit with black tunic and pumps, sparked by what, close-up, looked like diamond earrings and a white gold choker necklace, she presented an attractive woman -- but as she said, "I'm not running as a woman candidate, I'm running because I think I'm the best candidate to hit the ground running."

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