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Ardent Clinton supporters eyed
19/06/2008 19:16 - (SA)
Cincinnati - Homemaker Mary Mardis, 52, liked US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton but now she's not sure who she'll vote for in November.
Maybe Barack Obama, who beat Clinton to win the Democratic nomination. Maybe Republican John McCain.
"I was leaning toward Hillary. Now I'm undecided," said Mardis as she wheeled her baby nephew through a Cincinnati bookstore. "I will vote, but I'll probably be one of those people who decide two days beforehand."
Since Clinton conceded to rival Obama in the Democratic race on June 7, there has been endless speculation about the intentions of her disappointed female supporters.
Would they refuse to support Obama? Not vote in the presidential election? Or worse, throw their support to McCain?
Everywhere, it seems, there are examples of each.
Backing Clinton
Furious loyalists of the former first lady protested at a Democratic Party meeting in Washington, vowing to bolt if Clinton did not win the nomination.
But Clinton endorsed Obama and urged her backers to throw their support behind the Illinois senator.
This year, polls show most American women prefer Obama to McCain - by a wide margin.
An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll last week showed 52% of women favoured Obama, while 33% preferred McCain.
But the same poll showed 19% of voters who cast ballots for Clinton in the primaries preferred McCain over Obama - a large number considering Clinton and Obama agree on most policies, while McCain's platform is strikingly different.
Few supporters, big impact
That somehow Clinton's female supporters would be especially bitter because the New York senator missed her chance does not strike Kristi Andersen, a political science professor at Syracuse University, as terribly plausible.
"Even if people meant that when they said it right after Clinton dropped out, as the differences between Obama and McCain are more clearly drawn, it's pretty hard for me to imagine that there will be a significant group (switching to McCain)," said Andersen.
Kay Schlozman, political science professor at Boston College, agreed. But she said the reason the issue is getting attention is because even a segment of disaffected Clinton supporters could have an impact.
"If older, Democratic women either vote less Democratic than they usually do or have the propensity to stay home more than they usually do, then we can say that's the thing that tipped the scales," Schlozman said.
"But the same could be said" for other issues this year, like race or the Iraq war, Schlozman noted.
'White racial bonding'
Author and anti-racist activist Tim Wise suspects race could be behind some of the anti-Obama sentiment among Clinton supporters.
"Voting against Senator Obama is not about gender solidarity. It is an act of white racial bonding," Wise wrote in an open letter to progressive female Clinton supporters.
For her part, retired Cincinnati theatre teacher Frances Haas, an ardent Clinton supporter, said it would be ridiculous for her to vote for anyone but Obama in November.
"I'm not very happy with Obama ... but obviously I could never vote for McCain," said Haas, 72, a longtime Democrat. While she worried about Obama's inexperience and idealistic outlook, staying home in November also wasn't an option.
- Reuters
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US Elections Special Report
