So what is it about Hillary Rodham Clinton’s stint as U.S. secretary of state that gets people all riled up? Crises averted? Dictators stared down? Pacts signed? Diplomacy accomplished?

Let’s try “Hair and Makeup” for $400, Alex.

Yes, one of the most powerful women in the world, who practically lives on a plane that flies her hundreds of thousands of miles a year to the globe’s hot spots, is still taking it on the chin for whether her hair is flawlessly coifed and whether her makeup meets screen-test standards. And let’s not even visit the pantsuit critiques, which regard Clinton as if she were hitting red carpets instead of situation rooms.

Recently, obviously short of a scandal or two, The Drudge Report posted a picture of Clinton at a function in Bangladesh under the headline, “Hillary Au Naturale.” In the photo, the secretary wore her hair down, her glasses on and she wasn’t slathered in pancake. She did remember to wear lipstick. Points for that?

If the secretary has proven anything with her public lives, it’s that the old rules don’t apply to her. She moved beyond her husband’s pecadillos — and stayed committed to their marriage, despite them — and out of his substantial shadow to forge a separate identity in her public service. And even though she keeps a superhuman pace, she looks human doing it.

She brushed off the fashion criticism with an interviewer: “I feel so relieved to be at the stage I am in my life right now because if I want to wear my glasses, I’m wearing my glasses. If I want to pull my hair back, I’m pulling my hair back.”

— The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Ky., May 12