Waiting for Hillary Clinton's big moment at the Democratic convention tonight, I'm trying to get my head around this question: how could any of her supporters be for McCain (or not vote) rather than be for Obama?
It's crazy, just the thought that someone who is for a woman's right to choose and universal health care (to name a few of Clinton's progressive positions) would cast their lot with a pro-Bush Republican who vows to stack the Supreme Court with justices who will undo Roe v. Wade and pursue a half-assed market-based health policy.
Yet today the New York Times says that "Some Clinton fund-raisers are still simmering," and CNN reports that "Angry Clinton supporters toast McCain, roast Obama."
I wanted Obama to pick Clinton as his V.P. candidate, in large part because I was worried that this would happen – irritated he passed her over Clintonites refusing to act in the country's best interest.
Now that I'm seeing this come to pass, I'm glad that Clinton wasn't chosen. She hasn't done enough to get her supporters firmly behind Obama. With a great speech tonight she can partially redeem herself, but the damage already has been done.
At the risk of irritating some Clinton feministas, here's one reason I think her female backers are having such a tough time accepting that she lost fair and square to a better presidential candidate: they haven't been exposed to the rough and tumble of sports.
Men are more likely to be into sports, both team and individual. Early on, a man learns how to play well with others. You compete as hard as you can, but if you lose, you shake hands with the winner and say "good game."
Maybe you don't mean it. Maybe you're pissed-off beyond belief. Maybe you feel you were cheated out of a win.
Regardless, you move on. You don't take it personally. You train and practice harder. You don't sit around and pout like a girl. Which is just what a lot of Clinton supporters are doing.
Pouting.
Most of all, if you're not a starter on a team, you sit on the bench and cheer like crazy for the guys who are better players than you are. You don't quit and go sit on the other side of the gym, clapping for the opponent.
Like the Rolling Stones told us, you don't always get what you want in life, but "if you try sometimes you might find you get what you need."
Disgruntled Clinton supporters need to ponder this. They didn't get the Democratic presidential candidate that they wanted, but they have the person this country needs.
Support Obama, Hillary lovers. Put your nation first and your hurt feelings second.
After watching the comments of a couple of die hard Hillary supporters after her convention speech tonight, I am seriously concerned about my fellow females. Their attachment to Hillary is almost "stalkerish." It's a little scary. These individuals are about to decide to bite of their proverbial noses to spite their own faces. These women went on about how Obama has to "court them," how he hasn't asked them for their votes. Uh, I'm sorry, but to my recollection, Obama is running for president and as such, has gone all over America asking for everyone to vote for him. What is this special private invitation that some of of my fellow democrats need? What is he supposed to do, show up to the hotel rooms of each of the pissed off Hilliary T-shirt and button wearers, get down on his knees and beg? I don't get it. Sure, there has been some disappointment, but such is life. Obama's political platform and Hillary's platform are very close. To vote for McCain or not vote at all, just because they are pissed that Hillary lost to Obama, is ridiculous to me. I don't get it.
Posted by: Laura | August 26, 2008 at 10:15 PM
I wonder what the ratio of men / women is that call in votes to American Idol?
How about the ratio that watch Judge Judy?
Thats right, thats right, every vote counts.
You'd sure think the bonbon eat'n, soapy watch'n crowd would be voting for the smile and the speach, wouldn't you?
Well then I guess its not me thats steriotyping after all; turns out that women understand the gravity of their vote and importance of the leader of the free world better than the "sports watching" knuckleheads after all.
:-Q
Posted by: Harry Vanderpool | August 27, 2008 at 01:35 AM
Women who supported Hillary and now turn to McCain were never voting on the issues. It was always all about them as it still is.
If someone puts their country first they will be concerned about our escalating debt, about the health care issues that middle class working people face, about the possible climate changes that may devastate certain regions, about shifting our energy needs to sources that do not enrich our enemies. People who love this country will put its needs ahead of what they see as their own immediate ones. That is what patriotism is really about-- not some stupid flag pin or a bumper sticker that says support our troops while not wanting full health benefits for veterans. I'd bet a large percentage of those with the yellow ribbons don't favor the taxes to cover the true costs of this war.
I also worry about what is wrong with women and, as a woman who loves being a woman, it makes me wonder what the heck that is all about. BUT when I hear a man talk about his main fear being he might have to pay the taxes to support the government he claimed he wanted, the one that builds the highways he drives on, the military that protects him, and on it goes, I wonder about that man too. The bon-bon eaters are those who do not want to pay for what they do-- male or female.
Incidentally, as a woman of almost 65 years, I watch almost no television except some news, occasionally a movie and no reality programming, no idols for this country gal. I have never understood how you can get more people to vote in one of those contests than for who will be president. That makes sense-- not.
Posted by: Rain | August 27, 2008 at 08:26 AM
You're an idiot. And a sexist.
I am male and support Hillary...
It is the attitude of Obama supporters toward HRC supporters that are keeping us from supporting your candidate. You folks have no respect for HRC supporters. You need our vote and yet you despise us and ridicule us. Not a good way to win people over.
Making the analogy to sports and how women dont know how to lose gracefully, only goes to alienate HRC supporters.
I would rather get McCain in the White House than an arrogant and inexperienced Obama.
Maybe losing the white house will teach Obama and his zealots a lesson!
I have voted Democratic for the last 20 year. Not this year.
A democrat voting for McCain.
Patrick
Posted by: Patrick | August 27, 2008 at 10:13 AM
Patrick, you make my point. Thanks. To you, it's all about you. Not what's good for the country. Sad. Hopefully you'll come to see that me-me-me is a recipe for disaster, both societally and personally.
Posted by: Brian | August 27, 2008 at 10:36 AM
Rain said: "I have never understood how you can get more people to vote in one of those contests than for who will be president. That makes sense-- not."
**I have a simple explanation for you. Many kids who vote for contestants on "American Idol" type shows do so many times. You can vote as many times as you like, for as many contestants as you like. There are even speed dialing programs that allow you to make unlimited numbers of call-in votes. So, the actual number of voters is far, far less than the number of votes. For presidents you can only vote once, not 10-20, 100 or more times.
Posted by: condor | August 27, 2008 at 10:53 AM
Anyone watch "America's got Talent" last night? The little 10 year old girl, with martial arts talent and presentation was so cute. She is such a darling. I voted for her. There was much fun and joy in my vote.
Rain.....watch the show, find that little girl.......you will get hucked.
Posted by: Roger | August 27, 2008 at 11:41 AM
Revenge voting will put a nutcase in the presidency with the power of the bomb, a man who still considers his experience in his 20s to be his main qualification, a man who is materially kept by his wife with no clue what anything costs because he doesn't pay the bills, a man who deserted his first wife over her disability and his opportunity to marry up, a man who thinks Bork was a great pick for supreme court, a man who will reinstate the draft to fight his wars around the world as some kind of compensate for the loss he experienced in Vietnam, a man who wants to end legal abortion to send our daughters and ganddaughters to backstreet abortionists, a man who cannot keep track of any of factions in the world, who starts every speech with my friends and a smile that makes you wonder if he knows where he is or who he is beyond a POW.
If voting for McCain will provide a satisfying revenge, then I wonder why the Clinton supporters ever liked her. Certainly it was not about her issues as they are identical to Obama's. I heard she gave a great speech last night. It's too bad that small people with no real love for this nation would rather undo all of that by voting in revenge. How petty. I pity people who think that way and would rather lose an election than be one of them.
If HRC had been the candidate, I'd have voted for her-- holding my nose because I have not trusted the character of the Clintons, but I would have because of the alternative. Those Hillary fans who never cared about what she stood for obviously don't care about this country. It's all about them.
Posted by: Rain | August 27, 2008 at 02:25 PM
And Roger, I am in Montana, one of my favorite places, without a lot of access to tv but I am seeing antelope and deer and nature in its most beautiful.
Posted by: Rain | August 27, 2008 at 02:28 PM
If you dont think that the general public who votes in the general election is voting for matters that are important to them (rather than the public good), you are sadly mistaken.
In the end, most voters will vote for what is important to him or herself. And not for you or anyone else.
I rather have an experienced McCain be close to the RED button than an inexperienced Obama. I also dont want the USA to be turned into a coward nation afraid to take on dictators like Putin and the likes of Hitler.
There are many things about McCain that I like. He is not a bleeding liberal who expects to raise taxes to fund every social program that people like you want.
Posted by: Patrick | August 27, 2008 at 02:36 PM
then guess you weren't a real HRC supporter... maybe one of Rush's people sent in to vote for her but not believe in her issues. Study her positions, her stands and Obama's and they are very much the same. The question is one of judgment which Obama showed by seeing what going into Iraq would end up being. I suspect some of the so-called Hillary supporters never were and are using the supposed stands then to encourage Obama supporters to lose faith... btw, neither he nor I are liberal on all issues.
People should vote issues and not personalities. Find out what the various ones stand for and then decide where you want the country to go. I know a lot of people who do vote what they believe is best for the country even if they might end up paying more taxes-- me among them. It's a question of values and the short versus long view. How any conservative can like us borrowing so heavily from China is beyond me?
Posted by: Rain | August 27, 2008 at 03:34 PM
Patrick I am also a Dumb-ocrat (I will be changing to independant when time permits) voting for McCain.
>>You're an idiot. And a sexist.<<
Looks like we could cut down on the caffiene a triffle bit; eh?
Happy Voting!
Posted by: Harry Vanderpool | August 27, 2008 at 06:12 PM
Rain,
Montana-Wyoming area --- I love those areas too. When I vacation.....
Posted by: Roger | August 28, 2008 at 07:22 AM
I agree that it is self-defeating for Hillary Clinton voters to vote for John McCain, a politican who stands against everything Hillary Clinton has fought for. That being said, I don't think it's productive to scream at every Clinton voter who has doubts about Obama, and it's certainly NOT helpful to tell them they're pouting like a girl.
This diary might be useful to read:
http://www.mydd.com/story/2008/8/27/134140/279
Posted by: Peter H | August 28, 2008 at 10:15 AM
What Michael Graham of the Boston Herald says is the kind of comment that one would expect from someone who has a deep Oedipus complex. Did you actually sleep with your mother Michael? No wonder you are so depraved. Crying phoney sexism is always the last resort of the adult - male as well as female - who as a child has been subjected to physical and sexual abuse at the hands of a parent or guardian usually but not exclusively of the opposite sex and is still stuck in that distant time warp. And you are a classic example of this syndrome Michael Graham, while intelligent people like myself around the world, most notably in the UK and mainland Europe, who have vigorously campaigned for feminine equality when it wasn't fashionable in the United States, know what real sexism is. That's why in Europe - from Britain to Germany to Finland - and even in countries like India, Sri Lanka and Israel we've had women leaders in our respective countries, while the United States still lags behind in the sewers of male chauvinism.
All of these largely working class and clearly uneducated white men and their white female equivalents who now enthusiastically cheer Sarah Palin to the rafters and say they will vote for her and John McCain regardless of their asinine policies, or more to the point their transparent lack of any substantive ones, in November, and level their phoney sexist slurs against Barack Obama invariably always couch their enthusiasm for her with words like man "she's hot!" Tell me Mr Graham, do you really think that that openly voiced expression relates to her intellectual capabilities, or has anything to do with the skills she requires to run a country armed to the teeth with nuclear weapons in what is a clearly a very dangerous world largely caused by the antics of the Republican Party and stupid American machismo? I think not.
Furthermore, the United States of America has always been a white, male-dominated and white, male-run society. These white males were and are exclusively the sons, husbands, lovers and male relatives of white women, who have fucked with them, slept in their beds, cheated with them as Cindy did with John McCain, lied for them, forgiven them their indiscretions as Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Edwards did, raised their kids in whom they inculcated these macho "values" and cared for these men. And if after all that extraordinary close intimacy these white women were totally incapable of influencing these white men by persistently failing to persuade them in the past to let white women have the vote and, even in 2008, to use the current buzz phrase, stood by as these mommy-cosseted chauvinist white men wilfully restrict their chances to break through the supposed glass ceiling white women say they aspire to doing, tell me, clever clogs Graham and those of both sexes who think like you do, whose fault is that?
Surely not Blacks, who were and still are at the very bottom of the US social and economic pile; and certainly not that of Barack Obama who against the odds has, unlike you all, excelled at what he's put his mind to and has done his very best to rise above the gutter instincts of the likes of you Michael Graham in the noble endeavour to genuinely create a better and more equitable America for everyone regardless of race, gender, social status, sexual orientation or religion. The truth is, it has nothing at all to do with sexism but much to do with an intrinsic, covert racism, which you lily-livered cowards don't even have the guts to openly admit. At least even if one disagreed with you they could at least respect your honest and integrity. But such concepts don't feature in your sad, and self-destructive worlds.
British but unable to vote in the US elections, even though the decision of you Americans will have an impact on the lives of the rest of us who live in this world, I, like many of my fellow citizens in Europe and around the world am a Barack Obama supporter, because we all feel he is currently your country's best hope to avoid a military Armageddon with the rest of mankind. But part of me perversely wants John McCain and Sarah Palin to win. For I know that shortly afterwards America will be at war again, but this time on its own. And hopefully every one of you mutter-fuc--rs in that parochial country across the pond will be sent off to fight and lose your lives like the insignificant and dispensable trailer trash that you are. But somehow I don't think that for all your jingoism and sham patriotism any of you, even if the draft were re-introduced, would be first in line to volunteer and put your sad and unproductive lives in harm's way. No, cowards like you always leave that for others - the real patriots - to do
Professor Dr. Stanley Collymore
London, England.
Posted by: Prof. Dr. S. Collymore | September 26, 2008 at 07:39 AM
I've just read what Prof. Collymore has written above and wholeheartedly support every word he's said. All these sexism claims levelled at Barack Obama and his campaign team, and even ludicrously at the rightwing US media of all things, is nothing more than lame excuses by persons who have no intention whatsoever of voting for Barack Obama and wouldn't do so for any black man or woman whichever party they were the official candidate for or however qualified they were to be President of the United States.
If one were to objectively look at the arguments these so-called PUMAS are advocating it becomes even more obvious what their agenda is. They will vote for John McCain they say even though his policies are diametrically opposed to those of the Democratic Party which they claim they're members of. With friends like that who needs enemies. Moreover, should John McCain win with their help it's unlikely that he'll last one full term in office let alone two, and who will become President in his place? Sarah Palin.
So the disingenuous claim of these PUMA morons that its Hillary Clinton who they want to be the first female president will be forthwith scuppered. And if Jon McCain does last eight years, does anyone in their right mind think that Sarah Palin will step aside and give Hillary a pass, or that her neocon handlers will let her? I don't think so.
What a pity that these rabid but covert racists can't articulate their real reason for opposing Barack Obama. And frankly, who care what you think? Apart from a few exceptions most of you are white trash anyway and will always be that. So go vote for John McCain and Sarah Palin who don't give a damn about you, and shut up. More importantly, go get a life or failing that crawl back into the sewers where you belong. As a white German woman myself, I'm highly embarrassed that you share the same race as me or anyone else for that matter, since you're nothing more than an ill-educated, highly toxic load of sickening scumbags.
Dr Gunda Latuske
Hamburg Germany.
Posted by: Dr Gunda Latuske | September 26, 2008 at 07:42 AM
If one votes for either a Democrat
or Republican, they are in the grand
delusion.
Can you choose between the lesser of
two evils ?
Both are supported by the most criminal
banks on the earth.
We have no choice for president.
Both sides have the same agenda.
We have the illusion of choice.
They own us.
We have our choice over which one
will be our slavemaster.
Posted by: Mike Williams | February 15, 2013 at 04:00 AM