May 22, 2008 (LPAC)--Among the chorus of media postmortems on Hillary Clinton's campaign for the Presidency, and the New York Times feminist spin on implications for future women's presidential campaigns, liberal blogger Arianna Huffington suggested a more profound result. Huffington, who has not supported Clinton's campaign, called it "a historic triumph" likely to make her, at least, "a commanding progressive force in the Senate."

Huffington on May 19 published a column on huffingtonpost.com (re-published elsewhere including the website of the mass-circulation German daily Die Zeit), titled "Hillary Clinton's Defeat: A Historic Triumph." After a long elaboration on differences she's had with Clinton's campaign, but her admiration (and that of her Obama-supporting daughter) for Clinton's fearlessness, Huffington remarked that Hillary has, after several tries, found her own message "instead of the message Mark Penn's poll numbers told her to adopt." Huffington continued:

"And in doing so, she has redefined and taken over the Clinton brand. Forget welfare reform, free-trade uber alles, and third-way DLC-economics. Since hitting her stride in Ohio, Hillary has transformed the Clinton brand into one that represents working-class Americans. Because of this, she is the Clinton who will now be most relevant to the country's future.

I see Hillary returning to the Senate with a newfound sense of purpose -- and power. With the presidency no longer in her sights -- at least for now -- she could become a commanding progressive force in the Senate."

Lyndon LaRouche called Huffington's "a highly significant assessment" coming from a source not politically friendly to Clinton in recent times. "The problem for the enemy is--which [Huffington]'s reflecting--is that, if Hillary is not boxed in, if she's not gotten out of the Senate one way or the other, then she's going to become the most powerful person in the Senate. And that gives them the creeps," LaRouche said. "It's no longer a question of a woman running weakly, because she's a woman, and trying to be the first woman president. Hillary has given that up. And that is a fundamental change in U.S. politics: The fact that a woman has succeeded in running for the presidency, with this kind of impact."