Have to admit, at first I did not warm to Mrs. Clinton. First Lady Hillary Clinton was hard to like. I found her distracting and too attention seeking, like a needy kid who can never have enough and didn’t know when to quit, constantly acting out and looking for the limelight.

The Monica Lewinsky business did not help that image either. Granted Clinton was very brave and admirably stood by her man and her family, but her stone like silence although very dignified was a tad unhuman. Nonetheless, in my opinion, it is this taciturnity what made her the formidable stateswoman we see before us today.

That is why, along with many people, I was not at all surprised by her presidential bid.

However, it was stepping aside and conceding to Barack Obama that shocked me. Yes, she has put up a good fight, but clearly, as the better of the two candidates, I had hoped she will fight harder and for a little longer than she did. Well, if Obama was the first black man…., then she was the first woman, the first former first lady and equally had everything to fight for.

And although getting two Clintons for the price of one was a good bargain, at the time, it seems America was not quite ready for a Clintons’ encore! With so much stacked up against her, in hindsight she made a good choice, the brave choice. It was then that I started to see her in a different light and understand better why she is that way. It was then that I started to admire her resolve and tenacity even though we did not share the same politics.

It was clear she was going to get something out of stepping aside quietly, some expected her to go on the ticket as the Vice President, but the remarkable Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton was never going to accept playing second fiddle to Obama.

Despite being sidelined by her own party, Hilary Clinton, the 67th Secretary of State of the United States of America has proved herself as a diplomat, an ambassador to her nation and an impressive stateswoman.

That statesmanship became very evident recently in the manner by which she took full responsibility for the Benghazi terror attack that lost four American lives. When both the White House and the US, United Nations’ Ambassador tried to spin and hid the facts, Clinton came out and owned the whole situation, took full balm and saved face. Something both Barack Obama and Susan Rice were unable to do and will probably never do.