Will Hillary’s supporters ‘get over it’?

“Say what you will about Hillary Clinton, but the woman knows how to give a speech,” writes VivirLatino, one of Voices without Votes most prolific links. “Her 33 minute discourse before the DNC yesterday had me rapt — all 33 minutes of it. I think she hit a home run.”

In other liberal-leaning blogs like VivirLatino, the overall marks of Hillary Clinton’s speech were terrific. For the most part, bloggers pointed out that the first woman to seriously contend for the President of the United States was wholehearted in her plea for party unity at the Pepsi Center during the second full night of the Democrat Convention in Denver, Colorado.

“I think she did what she had to in terms of uniting the party,” argues Darryl Wolk from Canada, who in the same breath follows with: “I still think she would have been the strongest choice for VP.”

This is the conundrum facing presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama. As a political upstart who defeated the heavily funded and experienced political machine of Hillary Clinton, how will he keep control over the sometimes unwieldy Democratic party, whose complete support he needs to defeat Republican John McCain in November.

In what could be the biggest question of Election 2008, will Clinton’s supporters heed her call and support Obama in November? Inquiring bloggers want to know.

Let’s go to a story from Jotman in Thailand.

I had assumed Hillary supporters would “get over it,” but in the back of my mind was an incident in which I had been a participant.



While residing in the US, I became a member of a spontaneously assembled community group engaged in some emergency social activism. The stakes seemed high, our time limited. We assembled. Our group absolutely had to nominate two “speakers” to represent us at an upcoming town hall meeting.



One of the three people standing for nomination declared that “as a matter of principle,” one of our two representatives “must be a woman.” This woman had a large number of female supporters. The other two candidates — both male — vehemently disagreed. Gender absolutely should not be a criteria, they argued. To make a long story short, our activist group elected two representatives to attend the town hall — neither one was female.



The reason I bring up this story was what followed. Not only did the candidate who was not nominated quit our community activist group, but so did many of the women who had voted for her. That so many of our members had simply chosen quit the community group over the outcome of this one vote had surprised me.



Today, I can't help but wonder if a similar psychology is at play among Hillary Democrats.

In a somewhat similar vein, Israel’s Ms. Missive at Patriot Missive declares Clinton's speech didn’t heal divisions within the Democratic party:

Well, the way I see it is Hillary still has a vagina and Barack still has a penis. So, how is it a shock that Hillary loyalists still aren’t voting for Barack?

Perhaps not every Barack- and Hillary-ologist were viewing Clinton’s speech through the lens of gender (or sexual organs), but many political were deconstructing her words more closely than a group of literature grad students scrutinizing the latest David Foster Wallace tome.

Bluegrass Boabab, a South African with a wonderful nom de plume who now lives in the U.S. and writes theIn the Shadow of the Baobab blog claims that Hillary Clinton delivered her finest speech ever, a performance of her lifetime. However, the address was “about Hilary Clinton and her piece of women’s rights history she carved herself because of how close she got to be the nominee…as a woman, and rightly so too.”

Continuing:

Sometimes it sounded as if Obama was mostly treated like a tag on to her, but in a very nice and diplomatic and supportive fashion, so well that it got the people to their feet every time. She did what she had to do and said what she had to say in support of Obama. She said Michelle will be a good first lady, but never said why she thinks Obama would be a good president. A true endorser usually does. I am sure many thought that that was suppose to be her job tonight. Unite the party behind Obama. I don’t think the speech did though.

…I felt it was not an “Arrivederci Roma” speech. It was a “I’ll be back!” speech! A question of when? Maybe if Obama loses she could run again in 2012.

SnoopyTheGoon at Simply Jews points out that Clinton may have uttered the words “Obama is my candidate,” but:

She didn't specify what exactly it is she plans for him.

Just below, Dick Stanely comments that perhaps: “She's getting ready for next time, when she can run against McCain for his second term.”

There’s no mistaking that some continue to hold onto the idea that Obama-Clinton would represent a Democrat “dream ticket.” We can’t forget, however, the success the Obama campaign had in portraying Clinton as an old fashioned, tired Democrat. Here’s something in that vein from Richard Silverstein over at Tikun-Olam, writing after Joe Biden was introduced as Obama’s running mate. “One of the things I’ve admired about Obama’s campaign thus far has been his willingness to make daring moves, to do the unexpected,” he says early in his argument against the Biden choice. “It allowed him to break out of the mold. It set him apart from Hillary Clinton, the candidate who seemingly tried to do everything the same old, boring, old-fashioned way.”

The question remains what assets Hillary (or husband Bill) Clinton will bring to the Democratic party in the upcoming months. It’s a similar question that could be asked of a certain royal bloodline in the Republican Party. From Labor View From Bayside, based in Australia:

Is George W. Bush or the Clintons the greater anchor to be dragging into November? The next couple of months will be stormy for both of them, with or without the mixed metaphors.

1 comment

  • STOP THE DRAMA - NO OBAMA!

    JOE BIDEN AND OBAMA WERE WRONG ABOUT THE SURGE. JOHN McCAIN WAS RIGHT!

    THIS CONVENTION IS ANOTHER ROCK CONCERT FOR OBAMA. WE NEED A MATURE, INTELLIGENT, EXPERIENCED PRESIDENT — NOT A MICHAEL JACKSON WANNA-BE.

    OBAMA IS SIMPLY SAYING, “I’M SPECIAL!” — SORRY, BUT I DON’T AGREE.

    SO HE’S CONVINCED EVERYONE TO COME TO THE COLISEUM TO SEE THE GREEK GOD!?

    ARE THEY WEARING TOGAS AND LAUREL WREATHS ON THEIR HEADS?

    WILL THEY BOW DOWN AND WORSHIP HIM?

    WILL HE SPEAK ENGLISH?

    ARE HIS FOLLOWERS CRAZY? REMEMBER JIM JONES? NOW HE’S PASSING OUT BAMA KOOL-AID.

    AGAIN, WE NEED AN “ADULT” QUALIFIED PRESIDENT — NOT SOME LOONEY CARTOON.

    THE CLINTONS ARE HOSTAGES OF THE DNC. THEY HAVE TO SUPPORT OBAMA ALL THE WAY — IN ORDER TO GET HIM TO PAY OFF HILLARY’S CAMPAIGN DEBT AND PUT HER ON THE SUPREME COURT.

    YES, the Clinton’s both gave good speeches. However, read between the speech lines people! What they are saying isn’t close to what is happening, nor to what either of them believe!

    VOTE FOR THE HONORABLE JOHN McCAIN IN NOVEMBER.

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