The word "historic" may have lost a bit of its impact from overuse, but no one can deny that it fits this year's presidential campaign. For the first time since our country's 1776 birth, one of the two main political parties next month will nominate a woman – Hillary Clinton – to run for the White House. She clinched the prize by winning Democratic primary elections last week in New Jersey and California, where Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont also was on ballots as her only rival. Clinton now has enough national convention delegates to be nominated when her party meets July 25-28 in Philadelphia.

The Yale Law School graduate is the wife for former President Bill Clinton, who served two terms from 1993-2001. When Hillary Clinton was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2001, she became the first U.S. first lady to win public office. From 2009-13, she was secretary of state under President Obama – the country's first black president. He now endorses her effusively (see video below), saying: "I don't think there's ever been someone so qualified to hold this office."

Her Republican opponent in November is business mogul Donald Trump, who'll be formally nominated by his party at its July 18-21 convention in Cleveland. "I am looking forward to debating him," Clinton said last week. In a one-minute campaign commercial that begins airing Thursday, she says: "We face a choice about who we are as a nation. Do we help each other? Do we respect each other?" Her words alternate with clips of Trump mocking a disabled reporter and saying he'd like to hit a protester "in the face." Each candidate now is considering vice-presidential running mate choices.

Hillary Clinton says: "This election is not about the same old fights between Democrats and Republicans. This election is different. It really is about who we are as a nation." -- June 7 speech after clinching nomination

President Obama says: "I have seen her judgment, I have seen her commitment to our values up close. . . . I cannot wait to get out there and campaign for Hillary."

Columnist says: "The people who get most excited are the ones who remember how things used to be, back when girls couldn’t envision being in the Little League, let alone the White House." – Gail Collins, The New York Times