by Laura Conaway

For the longest time, newspaper editorial boards were all-male, and so were presidential fields. This election cycle, the Des Moines Register's editorial board is largely female, and the presidential field features a senator from New York named Hillary Clinton.

Who, it should be noted, just won the Register's endorsement on that side of the ticket. Executive editor Carolyn Washburn came on our show today and talked about the process of making the pick—followed by the process of defending it. The editor says Clinton just blew the group away.

"We all had our shields up, to be honest, in the same way that many, many Americans have their shields up about her," Washburn remembers. "We finished an hour and a half with her and came out and looked at each other and went, 'Wow.' She's just extremely impressive."