This is a story about three great women and two historic waves that embody the political, social, cultural, economic and consumer waves that are transforming America and the world in real time.
The three women are:
The first lady of the United States, Michelle Obama, is one of the most popular public figures in the nation who has earned the confidence, trust and admiration of so many Americans. She represents a superb balance between high academic and professional achievement, true joy in motherhood for her family and love of children generally and a faithful devotion to causes such as care for homeless veterans.
The secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton, is America's leading global diplomat and a fierce defender of our security, a voice for the aspirations of decent people everywhere and the most popular political figure in America, with the toughness of Margaret Thatcher and the social conscience of Eleanor Roosevelt.
The Democratic candidate for the Senate seat once held by the incomparable Edward Kennedy is Elizabeth Warren, whose election would be a Lexington-and-Concord moment for the progressive populist majority that awaits a leader with the vision and daring to inspire it.
The two great trends that are shaping the world are:
The 99 percent mobilizing for a nation and world that are more fair, just, honest, decent and equal in opportunity for the many, not only the few, and the long great march to equality of aspirational hope and achievement of leadership by the majority that is female.
Thursday at the National Press Club, the nonpartisan group Political Parity launched a 10-year campaign to double the number of women in Congress and holding governorships.
I applaud this campaign and support all projects that would bring new people, ideas and vision into leadership of tired and corrupted institutions, whether these new leaders are male or female, younger or older, Democratic or Republican.
America and the world have begun what I have called the Female Century, and along with this, the 99 percent have begun what I would call a century of great new aspirations, dreams that will not die, and leaders of institutions that seek to lift the many, not merely the few.
This new era brings together women and men who seek the dignity of work, equal pay on the job, human rights in the world, and leaders in public life who represent the patriotic goodness of the many and are not bought and sold by the corrupting power of money.
This new era demands an economy that bestows success that rewards ingenuity, talent, ambition and drive without discrimination or class wars financed by those who defend unfair practices, enjoy unjust enrichment or cling to unearned privilege that now rides against the tides of history and change.
I believe the candidacy of Elizabeth Warren is the second most important campaign in the nation.
Elizabeth Warren is the honorable, principled, unbought, unbossed and incorruptible champion of the men and women of the 99 percent who believe in the sweet, simple and spectacular notion that America must forever be that very special place where God's work is always truly our own and where every single one of us has the same fair chance to reach for the skies and get there in a country where great dreams always live, never die and still come true.
Michelle, Hillary and Elizabeth are all still climbing their mountains, and ours. If Warren is elected, as I believe she will be, she would instantly become one of the more powerful and inspirational voices for the 99 percent in the modern history of the United States Senate.
Let me be the first to suggest at least the long-shot possibility, to initiate a long overdue discussion, that the Democratic ticket in 2016 could be Hillary Clinton for president and Sen. Elizabeth Warren for vice president.
Why not?
This column was originally published at The Hill.
I also hope as we look to an Obama second term and beyond, we can envision the nation finally moving past the still gripping deep partisan warfare fostered during the Bush-Clinton era, and past both the Clintons and the Bushes themselves, who remain the personfication of that type of politics.
With comic understatement, Mr. Bodowsky describes Hillary Clinton as "a fierce defender of our security." Unfortunately, she has proven as Senator, presidential candidate to be a fiercely determined advocate for agressive militarism and expanded contracting of mercenaries. The continued promotion of Mrs. Clinton alone among American women as a presidential contender seems both unsettling for those concerned about Peace, unwise and futile.