Bravo, Liddy Dole

The term “trailblazer” has become a cliche but that’s what some pundits called Elizabeth Dole last week when she dropped out of the presidential race. The word is an apt one, though.

Those who carve hiking trails through wooded areas face messy, thankless work. And though they often have help, no one is ahead of them. They are the beginning.

Conventional wisdom says a woman will be president in the next century. The one woman who finally breaks through will be heralded - until she faces the criticism that goes with the job.

The first woman president will be called a trailblazer, too, but the trail will already be in place. Geraldine Ferraro didn’t make vice president in 1984 and Rep. Patricia Schroeder of Colorado withdrew from an early presidential bid in 1992. And now, Dole is out. But they all helped build the trail, as have the hundreds of women nationwide who have run for elected office. Their campaigns have transformed society’s idea of what gender a politician should be.

Those who truly build hiking trails never see the hikers who use the trails decades later, but that does not diminish the beauty of their work. Dole and others might not live to meet our first woman president, but they should be thanked now for clearing the way.