Speaking to a crowd of women activists today, Senator Clinton portrayed her campaign for the presidency as a historic moment built on the legacies of great women from Susan B. Anthony to her hero, Eleanor Roosevelt.

The engagement, before an adoring crowd at the Eleanor Roosevelt Legacy Committee’s annual luncheon in New York, kicked off a week her campaign has dedicated to highlighting women’s political clout.

Mrs. Clinton said she draws comfort during tough times on the campaign trail by remembering Roosevelt’s famous line that women in politics must “grow skin as thick as a rhinoceros.”

Mrs. Clinton, enjoying a solid lead in the polls, focused her attacks on President Bush and the Republican Party while avoiding mention of her Democratic rivals.

She pledged to rebuild America’s reputation abroad by telling the world, “the era of cowboy diplomacy is over.”

“You cannot be a leader if no one is following,” she said to laughter from the audience.

Mrs. Clinton said that the Republican Party offered “false choices” between liberty and security and between energy independence and the economy.

“I believe we can follow the constitution and protect ourselves,” she said.

She said that confronting environmental problems would create jobs, make American business more competitive, and create independence from foreign energy sources.

Mrs. Clinton criticized the president’s recent veto of a bipartisan bill expanding the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. “There could not be a starker example of the bankruptcy of this administration,” she said. “It’s not only about the children who draw the short straw in life, but all of our children.”

The senator also took a moment to congratulate her husband’s former sidekick, Vice President Gore, on winning the Nobel Peace Prize for his environmental activism, drawing the biggest applause of her speech.