Nationally syndicated columnist and Huffingtonpost.com co-founder/editor-in-chief Arianna Huffington may not have been a personal supporter of Hillary Clinton for the Democratic party nomination (HuffPost didn’t endorse a candidate), but she has kind words for the New York senator and former first lady all the same.

I met Arianna in New York on Tuesday to ask her what she, as the author of a book about women conquering their fears, thought about Clinton’s failure to secure the nomination and her political future.

Here’s what she said about…

Supporting Obama:

Since this is an election where we are clear that it’s in the best interests of the country that (Arizona Republican Senator) John McCain is not president , and we have seen that Obama has a much better chance of defeating John McCain, it’s a very clear choice. (With Obama) there’s no equivocation. It’s the future, getting out of Iraq. It’s a dramatically different take on the economy. It’s a clear break with the past, which the country’s really longing for.

Drawbacks to Clinton:

The two main drawbacks were that she did vote to authorize the war, so it’s much harder to oppose the war as categorically as Obama can oppose it, given that he has been against it from 2002… Given now that a vast majority of the American people know the war was wrong, if you knew that from the begining, you’d have a real clear advantage.

On the disappointment of a woman not getting a major party nomination:

Actually you know, I found her speech on Saturday so incredibly important for women because I have written as you know for my “Fearless” book a lot about how a lot of women have held (themselves) back because of the fear of failure. That has been the greatest fear in women. I mean, men have it too, but women, we have it in a much more intense way.

She failed in her immediate goal of winning the nomination, but this was in a way a historic triumph for women, because the question, “Can a woman be commander-in-chief?” will never be asked again. Can a woman run a great campaign, raise money and get millions of votes? All these questions have now been answered, thanks to her race. As a mother of two teenaged daughters, I’m constantly saying to them, always take the risk, go for your dreams. If you fail, it doesn’t matter. It’s like there is nobody who has succeeded in life who has not failed along the way. (Her speech) was a concession speech but at the same time it was a triumphant speech. I thought it was an incredibly moving, powerful moment for the country and especially for women.

And would she support Hillary in 2012 if she ran again, and the circumstances were right?

Sure. Absolutely.

I also asked why it should be that a woman in the United States still hasn’t had a clear shot at becoming a head of state when countries like India, Indonesia, Germany, Chile and Pakistan have pulled it off.

Her answer:

It has more to do with the women who have run… I don’t think there is more sexism here than there is in India, for example. If you look at the women who run, there isn’t anyone you’d say, “yes, if that person wasn’t a woman, they’d absolutely have to be president.”

(Photo: Reuters)