Anxious Democrats
The Democrats are swarming into Denver. Now they just have to take the rest of the country (while hanging on to Denver). The mile high city is filled with hopeful anticipation - and thousands of delegates, protesters, lobbyists, journalists from the new as well as the old media, souvenir dealers, souvenir hunters, and camp followers of every sort. For the Democrats, happy times are here again. We've heard this song before, of course.
But there is the Hillary factor. The apprehension is palpable. It's true, a Clinton spokesman has announced she will release her delegates. The question is, how many of those delegates want to be released. In another mollifying gesture, the Party has decided to seat the Michigan and Florida delegations. Happy times are here again? The Democrats sure hope so. It's no longer about Hillary, it's about winning in November.
Senator Clinton knows that, too. And she knows what she has to do. She has to go out there and do everything she possibly can to help Barack Obama move into the White House on January 20th. Her biggest job is to convince her most ardent supporters that they, too, must move on with her. She's got to convince them to work as hard as she is to insure victory in November. If you doubt that she's working hard, look at her schedule.
An early and steadfast Clinton supporter, former Apple general counsel and head of the Human Rights Campaign Elizabeth Birch, dismisses any suggestion that Hillary isn't doing her part. "She's stumping the country for the ticket, imploring her supporters to work for and vote for Barrack. No one is going to be able to say Hillary didn't fight to put him in the White House." And we all know what a fighter Hillary can be.
But Frankie Sue DelPapa, the former Democratic Attorney General of Nevada, and a big Hillary supporter in the silver state, fears that not enough of Hillary's supporters have gotten the word. "One of my old supporters and a big Hillary fan came up to me over the weekend and said she just couldn't bring herself to vote for Obama," DelPapa told me. "I was stunned."
Fortunately for Senator Obama, there are thousands and thousands of Democrats like DelPapa out there, Hillary supporters who live in the real world and are now working for Senator Obama. DelPapa expects to campaign with Senator Clinton for Obama when Clinton returns to Nevada next month. She thinks it's even more important that she be out there with Clinton than with Obama.
Of course, the McCain camp is jumping on the Hillary thing and doing its best to make sure her supporters stay really, really mad - mad enough to vote for McCain in November. That would defy logic, but who said that politics was logical?
For more Huffington Post coverage from the Democratic National Convention, visit our Politics @ the DNC page, our Democratic Convention Big News Page, and our HuffPost bloggers' Twitter feed, live from Denver.
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Hillary supporters who are threatening to vote for McCain in the hopes of putting Hillary in the White House in 2012 are deluding themselves. If Obama loses, Hillary and her supporters will be blamed in part for his loss. Those who have been supporting Obama would be filled with anti-Hillary venom of equal or greater strength to the anti-Obama venom flowing through the veins of these Hillary die-hards, and the Obama camp would refuse to vote for her in the primaries (and, should she make it that far, in the general). This would likely split the party and doom us to a GOP President for the next two terms at minimum. If you want Hillary as a President, vote Obama and lay the groundwork for Hillary to take office in 2016.
Hillary supporters who vote for McCain are ensuring that she will never return to the White House!
Nice try
You are absolutely right. Not a chance!
The latest GOP ad featuring Hillary Clinton berating Obama is the sure fire reason that HRC if supporting Obama. In fact today she is mocking that Repug ad with the statement, " I am Hillary Clinton and I DO NOT endorse this ad". If Obama does not succeed, the blame will be put squarely on Hillary. The repugs would therefore get a "twofer". Two outstanding candidates shot out of the picture for the next twenty years. That is why the Repugs are working so diligently on promoting this devisive aspect.
Hillary is handling this correctly, to give her real supporters the recognition for all the hard work that they did for her campaign. Notice the term "real supporters". Because the GOP and the likes of the Rush Limbaugh "operation Chaos" have been promoting the PUMAs in an effort to disrupt and destroy Obama AND Clinton. After her speech the real Hillary supporters will join in party unity and the PUMAs will go back to their caves in the GOP. In fact today on the Limbaugh website, he is welcoming back his "Op Chaos" soldiers back to "camp"
It will always be about Hillary -- at least to Hillary and Bill. Does anyone really believe she wants Obama to win? I think not. Elect Hillary 2012!
I think that is the worst idea ever. It needs to stop being about these two individuals and strat being about what is right for the country.
Many of us will not support Obama even if she asks us so nicely, or even if she called at 3:00 am. Our vote is our vote and despite all the effort, the millions that he has spent, what has been promised or invented by Obama... I still will not give my vote to Obama, as I can not unify aganist my better judgement.
As the McCain ad said; "The Truth Hurts".
Please donnal................pretty please vote for McCain. You're clearly a Fox News watcher!
Most of the Hillary supporters are irrational thinking people. They are rabid feminists that don't think they will live to see a woman president. Maybe they will and maybe they won't., but this woman was the wrong woman. She has got to do a better job of convincing than she has so far. Her words are hollow. She and her husband must do what is best for the country and leave their egos at home.
As you describe them you surely don't want them, so let sleeping dogs lie. They will wake up soon enough. But is you want them don't wake them with taunts.I am not a woman but I am also sleeping 'till my prince arrives just like the Obama people were before he arrived.If they had voted for Kerry we would not be where we are now.
For the record:
I have been a devoted Democratic Progressive all my life BECAUSE I believed that the principles, values and goals of the Democratic Party were to give working American families opportunities that corporations, wealthy elite and vested private interest would not allow through their unwillingness to share the prosperity of creative genius in the American spirit and heritage.
I supported Sen. Clinton BECAUSE I believed that FINALLY an intelligent, decisive and compassionate Christian leader
(I am a retired United Methodist minister- Yes, I know: so is 'King' Georgie, Darth Cheney, 'Johnnie Boy' Edwards and Hillary Clinton {and she most represents the values of faith that I cherish- servanthood for the truly dispossessed in our society}
would allow the most dispossesd segment of our society to 'catch a break'- the women of America
BECAUSE they nurture, educate, sustain and support EACH the next generation has been SOLD OFF by the corporations, the banking institutions and the wealthy elite who prefer $$ rather than health, prefer power rather than education and who prefer GREED rather than GREEN!
Sen. Obama is not ready and does not possess the experience, wisdom or toughness to lead the free world YET!
My VOTE is MY VOTE and Sen. Clinton does not control my vote or is NOT RESPONSIBLE for my vote!
So quit trying to blame her for my vote for Ralph Nader and my local Oklahoma progressive senators and reps to defeat the ultra-right wing extremists in power in Oklahoma.
Your right, your vote is your vote. I just hate to see you waste it. Nader isn't going to be president with or without your vote. But McCain might be president if you don't vote for Obama. Hillary best represents my values too but she isn't running and I will do what I feel is best for my country...anything it takes to make sure Republicans no longer control the White House.
If you really do support Hillary, don't waste your vote. Vote Obama in November.
My daughter just ran into a female physician in New Mexico who supported Clinton but can't stomach Obama. I can't imagine anyone who works in medicine supporting another Republican president, but there you are. Hillary needs to do a hard sell to these supporters and remind them what's at stake. She has absolutely nothing to gain by holding back.
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