In his December 2 Washington Times column, in which he discussed President-elect Barack Obama's announcement of his "national security team," Times editor emeritus Wesley Pruden wrote that Sen. Hillary Clinton “suggested she has the equipment to be the manliest member of the entire Obama administration.” Obama named Clinton as his choice to be secretary of state on December 1.

As Media Matters for America documented, on the June 9 edition of MSNBC's Hardball, contributor Michelle Bernard claimed that Clinton “ran as a man” during the 2008 presidential campaign, and in a 2007 column, The Wall Street Journal's Peggy Noonan asserted that Clinton “doesn't have to prove she's a man. She has to prove she's a woman.”

From Pruden's December 2 Washington Times column:

Hillary Clinton, who suggested she has the equipment to be the manliest member of the entire Obama administration, invoked the campaign mantra right away, cheering an uneasy cult after those earlier appointments. She's not only for change, but “positive” change. She promised to work with the toy countries of the world to resolve global crises.

“The American people have demanded not just a new direction at home, but a new effort to renew America's standing in the world as a force for positive change,” she said. She vowed to “reach out to the world again,” to give the thirsty world a Coke after the drought of the Bush years.