MY COLLEAGUE Janadas was sitting in front of a TV in the newsroom last week, engrossed with CNN's coverage of a Clinton versus Obama debate.

I know he's a fan of Hillary Clinton so just for the fun of it, I walked up to him and told him: 'I don't like Hillary.'

He looked at me, dismissed my remark with 'you're just jealous of her', and turned his attention back to Mrs Clinton.

Er, no, I'm not. Really.

Okay, there are some women I'm jealous of, although jealous is the wrong word to use. Let's just say I'm lightly envious of them.

I wish I had actress Maggie Cheung's throwaway-chic sense of style, for example. How does she manage to look fantastic even when her hair is greasy and her face oily (as was the case when she visited our office some years back to take part in a web chat)?

Whenever I see yummy mummies - sleek housewives with diamond rings from adoring husbands flashing from their left hands ushering their kids into the back of their new shiny SUVs - I feel a tinge of regret. Was that a path in life I should have taken?

And when I'm in the company of confident, eloquent corporate women brimming with intelligence and ambition, I always find myself shrinking a little and wishing I had just half their brain power and drive.

But jealous or envious of Hillary Clinton? No, don't think so.

You can only feel jealous and envious of a person if he or she is a threat to what you deem precious in your life, or if he possesses something you would like and that is actually within your reach.

A 60-year-old American pitching to be the President of the United States - in effect the most powerful person in the world - does not fall into that category for me.

I am not the only woman in the anti-Hillary camp, of course.

Janadas, who is based in the United States, told me later that he was struck by how almost all his women friends in Singapore don't particularly like her too.

He, however, finds her smart, able, well-informed, tough, disciplined and strong.

It is a view that another colleague, Derwin, who heads The Straits Times' US bureau in Washington, shares.

He is impressed by how Hillary has 'substance' and also a solid, experienced team behind her.

American women, he said, hold extreme views on her - they either love her and see her as Commander-in-Chief material, or detest her as a species of female whose name rhymes with rich (and the word's not 'witch'). There is no middle ground.

Indeed, when you read the literature on why some American women hate Hillary, the vitriol is scary but the reasons unclear.

Some feminists, even those who used to support her, now say she has betrayed the cause and that her politics, actions and even demeanour depict 'patriarchy in sheep's clothing', as one article put it.

Other Net postings by Americans decry everything from her hawkish stance on Iraq to her secretive nature.

She has certainly been subjected to the sort of catty scrutiny the men in the presidential race have not.

Her dress sense, or rather the lack of it, has been ridiculed, as has everything from how she has fat legs to the wrinkles on her face. And nine out of 10 times, it is a woman making those comments.

Take a wickedly funny column by Robin Givhan in The Washington Post last December on Hillary's penchant for pantsuits.

Givhan, a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer who had earlier opined on Hillary's cleavage, writes: 'There are a host of reasons to explain Clinton's attachment to pantsuits. They are comfortable. They can be flattering, although not when the jacket hem aligns with the widest part of the hips (hypothetically speaking, of course). Does she even have hips?...

'What would possess a woman to wear a jacket the colour of a geranium in full bloom and then imply she doesn't want anyone to notice or comment on her clothes?

'Yes, a woman can still be taken seriously, viewed as tough and celebrated for her ideas even if she is wearing a sunshine yellow suit. But someone, somewhere, is also going to notice that she is dressed like a solar flare.'

BUT back to the question of why I don't like Hillary.

Not that it matters one bit whether I in Singapore do or not but the reason I don't is that she reeks of an ambition so naked I find frightening.

She is so hungry to be president she will stop at nothing to get there. She will forgive a philandering husband who so publicly humiliated her. She will settle on a hairstyle once and for all (and a non-threatening auntie-like one too).

Most women would consider two terms in the White House as First Lady a good enough achievement in life but, no, she will set in motion a senatorial career that will lead her back there as No. 1. In fact, she will even cry on national TV to prove she is 'human' too.

Everything about her is just so planned.

But, actually, what is so wrong with that?

If I am honest with myself, a key reason for my cynicism of Hillary is the fact that she is female.

I can think of so many reasons to be suspicious of a nakedly ambitious woman, yet I don't and I won't apply the same standards to a nakedly ambitious man.

Because, if I am really, really honest, I must admit that I don't like Hillary (and perhaps even the other women I am 'lightly envious' of) for the simple reason that she is a very accomplished woman leading a charmed life.

Her drive, intelligence, single-mindedness and ambition threaten me - not directly, of course, but as a fellow woman.

Hillary is making so much of her life that she is making mine look bad.

IT HAS been said that women are much harsher on other women than men are, and I believe that to be true.

I am judgmental of other women (note my take on Maggie Cheung's hair and face), as I am sure they are of me.

Women judge each other all the time, sometimes unconsciously. Outwardly we might project a united sisterhood vibe but inwardly we are constantly appraising one another, from our outward appearances to our inner motives.

We impose standards and parameters on how other women should look and behave and feel. And then we talk about women to other women. A lot.

Oh, we notice things about men too and talk about them, but it's much more fun discussing (okay, dissing) a woman.

Men somehow don't do this as much. You seldom see them engaging in the kind of in-depth post-mortem on another man's (or woman's, for that matter) looks or behaviour or motives the way women do to women. Maybe it's biological, I don't know.

Which is why if I were Hillary, I'd forget courting the female vote and zoom in on the male.

If a woman doesn't like another woman, there's very little you can do to win her over, and I think women will agree that it doesn't apply to just the US presidential race. We see it played out every day.

But if she can win the support of more men such as Janadas and Derwin who value intellect and ability, she'll succeed in returning to the White House - and frankly, that will be an easier task than trying to persuade some women to like the colour of her pantsuits.