By Erika Lovley
 Politico
 January 21, 2011 President Bill Clinton would not stop talking. 

That’s all Christine Todd Whitman could think about as she anxiously awaited her big national moment — the official response to the State of the Union address. 

“He gave his regular speech and then kept going,” Whitman said. “I was sitting there saying, ‘Now what do I say; he’s said everything.’ I started to get quite nervous.”

The response speech is one of the more daunting spotlight moments for an up-and-coming politician. Delivered directly after the president’s live address to the full Congress, Cabinet and Supreme Court, and a national TV audience, the response has a reputation for being a second-class act that is awkwardly staged and poorly executed. 

In 2006, Gov. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) was criticized for not hitting Republicans hard enough. 

In 2008, Kathleen Sebelius, then the Democratic governor of Kansas, was lampooned as dreadfully boring. [...]

By Kirk Heinze MLive.com January 12, 2011 I recently had the pleasure of interviewing two most accomplished women on Greening of the Great Lakes. Both are former governors. Both are exceedingly knowledgeable, articulate and passionate about the beliefs they hold dear. And, among those beliefs, they share a deep and abiding commitment to the development of renewable energy. [...]

By Kathleen O'Brien The Star-Ledger January 04, 2011 TRENTON — Imagine this scenario: A woman governor heads for a Disney vacation with her family just as a blizzard is approaching. When the storm cleanup doesn’t go as well as planned, she is criticized for her absence. [...]

By Maudine R. Cooper BET.com January 5, 2011 The latest unemployment numbers reveal that African Americans seeking work still are among the hardest hit by the economic downturn. The 16 percent unemployment rate among African Americans hovers around a 25-year high, and remains six percentage points above the national average. [...]