Dee Dee Myers

After I left the White House, I kept a foothold in the business of American politics as a talk-show host, analyst, commentator, speechmaker, and occasional writer. I was no longer a practitioner, but I was still a partisan, a Democrat, a blue-stater through and through.

As women have played an increasingly important role in politics, there is no question that they’ve brought a different perspective, focusing attention on a broader set of issues and building alliances with other women.

It isn’t fate but fecklessness that has shoved Sarah Palin to the sidelines of national politics. The real tragedy is that she’s taken a lot of other serious Republican women with her.

When I first started working in politics, as a junior aide on Walter Mondale’s 1984 presidential campaign, it never occurred to me that I would one day work in the White House. There were plenty of women among the volunteers who stuffed envelopes and walked precincts. But there were fewer and fewer on each successive level of influence and access.

Obama seemed poised to realign American politics after his stunning 2008 victory. But the economy remains worse than even the administration’s worst-case scenarios, and the long legislative battles over health care reform, financial services reform and the national debt and deficit have taken their toll. Obama no longer looks invincible.