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Philly: Ugly Clinton Victory Rally
PHILADELPHIA-- "This is a Hillary victory party, not an Obama loser party," shouted Mali Kigasari, a Clinton supporter from California. Hillary Clinton's victory rally at the Park Hyatt hotel in Philadelphia Tuesday night came after a long fought battle.
While she delivered an impassioned speech inside, hundreds of people gathered outside and filled the streets with chanting, and cheering.
Many were filled with emotion and some were angry. What will voters do in November if the candidate they support loses the nomination?
"I will not vote [for Obama] period," said Kigasari, who has voted Democrat for the last 25 years.
If Democrats are not united in the fall, Republicans will have another four years in the White House.
"I wouldn't vote at all," said Rasheed, a local reggae artist and Obama supporter.
"Either one would be a victory over Bush," said Eric Markel, a local musician who supports Obama but said he admired Clinton for her strength.
Polls cannot measure the emotion of voters in a historic election with the possibility of the first female president, and the first African American president.
"I will vote for McCain," said M.G. who came to Philadelphia from Georgia to volunteer for Clinton with her sister. Her sister agreed.
Outside the hotel Tuesday, people gathered together for their candidates, and chanted with vigor. As they stood opposite each on the street corner, they were a small visual representation of the possibility of divide within the Democratic Party.
Even though Clinton and Obama don't seem to like each other much, the longer this race continues, the harder it is to repair the damage.
"We're Democrats, we want the White House back," said Amen Brown, an Obama backer who said he would vote for Clinton if she won the primary.
A "dream ticket" may be the only solution?
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Any Clinton supporter who votes for McCain is not voting according to policy considerations. Clinton and Obama are practically identical when it comes to policy. Clinton and McCain have nothing in common policy wise. Health care, taxes, environment—they are polar opposites. So I have to ask myself, what do they have in common that would motivate a voter to choose McCain over Obama?
Compare Clinton and Obama:
http://www.progressivepunch.org/
The problem is that it is no longer about policy post-nomination, it is about character. I simply can not for for one of the Democratic candidates because I think they lack personal honor and integrity. When a person lacks personal honor, you can never be sure of where they stand.
This "headline" should have been followed by the words, "I have absolutely nothing to write here but I just wanted to use that headline."
Regardless of what some of their supporters do, the important thing is to unite and win in Nov. Hillary, Barack, and Edwards have all said this in debates. Don't let what a small amount of their supporters do influence your opinion of said candidate. The only thing worse than your candidate not winning in Nov is if McCain does.
The title of the article is perfectly apt. It shows that Hillary Clinton's supporters would rather vote McCain in November than Obama. Obama supporters are more reasonable and would vote Clinton if she "wins" the nomination. Clinton supporters these days are all nasty, ugly and vile. They spew hate on Obama because he's beating her. She throws the kitchen sink at him and he just shrugs it off. Wow, he surely is the horrible person her supporters make him out to be.
You might want to tell this to the Obama supporters who have stated on national television and in various print media that they would absolutely not vote for Hillary Clinton. Maybe they were referring to another Hillary Clinton. Or they forgot to be reasonable.
More likely, people just say thoughtless and stupid things sometimes regardless of whom they support.
Obama supporters have a plethora of reasons to be unable to vote for Hillary. He hasn't done anything to make Hillary's supporters refuse to vote for him. Spin it any way you want. Hillary supporters seem to shrug off every nasty, immoral, dishonest new Clinton tactic as "just politics", expecting no more of her than they do of the republicans. I would be very disappointed in Obama if he pulled any of her crap.
This is the reality. Hillary and Barack are not the same if you care about character.
I am confused by the Title of this article. It was a tremendous win for hillay clinton. I watch the pundits in disbelief of this victory. Maybe they should spend some time analyzing what happened here. The people find Obama - inexperienced and am not sure about his past and where he really stands on the issues and his own personal traits. It will take much longer to figure this out. I think unfortunately the only remedy would be a Clinton-Obama ticket. It would give the people 8 years to know him and then he could run in 2016 and Hillary would campaign for him endlessly. I do not see why this cannot happen. Swallow their prides and move on.
There isn't going to be any HIllary/Obama ticket. There isn't going to be an Obama/Hillary ticket either.
You don't find it telling that despite the fact that the demographics of Pennsylvania aligned for Hillary Clinton better than any other state, and that she had the entire Democratic political machine behind her, and Obama spent the last six weeks defending himself against Wright, "bitter", William Ayers, and the constant questions about his electibility from the Clinton campaign, he still, in those six weeks, managed to take about 15 points off of HIllary's lead in Pennsylvania? He also continued to blow her away in fundraising.
Having said all that, I'll vote for Hillary if she is the nominee, although my support for her has withered with every new lie she tells. The alternative, if she does somehow manage to get the nomination, is at least four more years of just what we've had for the last eight, and I don't know if the country can survive that and still be America.
"...a tremendous win for hillary clinton." ??? Excuse me, but she was up by 20 points and she could not close the deal.
Okay, let's pretend, let's reverse the numbers: Obama 's up 20% in PA six weeks ago, and Hillary cuts his lead in half. What's the Clinton campaign spin now? "Hillary came from behind and cut Obama's lead in half!!! That means she won! She won!" Right? Right.
So, all together now, gather 'round the reality bar: Senator Obama cut Hillary's lead in half in Pennsylvania in a matter of six brief weeks. And he's still ahead in elected delegates and popular vote and will be at the end of the primaries. Senator Obama will win the Democratic nomination (he already has, as Former President Clinton and Senator Clinton can never catch up), and he will become the 44th President on January 20, 2009.
skewed vision, trickles down from hillary and throughout her entire campaign and supporters. They refuse to see reality.
It can't happen because she is losing the primary. You know, the method by which we choose the democratic nominee?
Also, how was this an AMAZING victory for her? She netted some 12-15 delegates and performed about 10% worse than she was tracking a month ago. She had a 20% lead in this state. She had a natural advantage there. She had a patronage machine and a popular governor campaigning for her. How come she only got 54% of the vote?
Hope to see you here after she concedes in June.
I'm confused by your comments. Anyone following this race knew she was going to win. If she didn't win this (by some strange stroke of luck), it would have been curtains for her. Calling for the leader of a race ("swallowing their pride") to drop out is absurd.
Hillary needs to swallow her pride - as Edwards, Richardson, Huckabee, Romney, and all of the others who were trailing - have. If she had any class, she would.
wolfi101,
since when winning by double digits is luck? she won, we were celebrating and Obama people were being jerks by crashing our party. The writer of the article "forgot" to tell you that what jerks the Obama people were on that night. I am a Hillary supporter and I have never gone to an Obama victory party, simply because i don't go to parties that I am not invited to (I often don't even go to the ones that I am invited to), it is beyond me why they would want to be jerks. Since when bullying people makes them have change of hearts and minds? try being nice and using logical arguments.
Dear Ms. Mansfield,
the title of your article, "Philly: Ugly Clinton Victory Rally," was poorly named as we, Senator Clinton supporters thought it was pretty nice till we had to deal with ugly behaviors of Senator Obama supporters. You failed to report on the behavior of 20 or so Obama supporters that showed up to crash our victory party that made it ugly. As far as I am concerned, there is nothing ugly about a double digit victory!
Umm,
Clinton: 54.6%
Obama: 45.4%
That's 9.2% and "double digit" only if your counting numbers to the right of the decimal point. Besides, Hill had a more than 20-point lead in March -- and lost 10+ points even with the Reverend Wright, "Bittergate", and ABC debacle pointless nonsense being hyped daily on the MSM. Not a good showing, imo.
9%
Whats crazy is, Clinton has refered to how historic it is for a woman to be Pres. She plays on the woman thing as much as possible. Can you imagine if Obama even mentioned anything about being black, or how historic it would be, or what he would do for black people? He would be working at Wendys by now! What a country!!!!
Feminazis unite!
I was appalled that she's even stolen "Yes we can" - she really is quite an actor.
What a hologram. Has she NO integrity at all? ANY woman for president? How sad, really.
My grandmother was more of a feminist than Hillary Clinton. Everything she accomplished she did on her own, not because of her husband.
I am so blown away and disgusted by what Hillary Clinton has turned into---and get the exact same feeling from her as any of the GOP rats that like her so much (Rove, Fox News, Rush, etc.). To me, she would be the same as McCain. What a creep!!
Here we go again with the darn dream ticket idea. It looks like the Clinton supporters with try anything to make this idea a reality. I say give it up, your candidate lost, it will not work.
Obamacans come on over to RALPH NADER 2008.
genmalia makes an excellent point...
I am an Obama supporter as well and have been since the start.
I have absolutely no intention of voting another Transformer Decepticon like Hilliary in office. I am sick an tired of political/personal misrepresentations and ugliness...just cant take the Clinton initiated negativity. She's a great Senator and did not need to resort to Repug tactics (which are hurting/dividing our party). When she speaks now --I get nauseous at the thought of Repug's now reveling in our dissention. I'm disappointed in Hilliary and tired of the country I love being influenced to stay divided so people can stay in power (Bush now Clinton).
Off my soapbox on to my point.
Why do these fiercely devoted supporters, who say they wont vote for their Democratic nominee's rival, always turn to McCain??
If Obama is not the nominee (which is highly unlikely) I'm voting for Ron Paul.
I'm tossing that over. I won't vote for Hillary, I was trying to hold my nose for McCain, but I can't do it - I used to think well of McCain - in 2000, but lately he's delusional. I haven't found him lying, and that is why I can't vote for Hillary - I cannot abide a liar.
Ron Paul it'll be if she steals/connives the nomination.
I will not vote for Clinton if she wins the nomination.
Where does the hate of obama from clinton supporters come from?
From her inevitability or the fact that she deserves the nomination?
There policies don't appear to be that different. There styles are different, is that where all the polarization comes from?
Because Obama is denying Hillary what she "rightfully deserves". Because Hillary believes that she is somehow "entitled" to the nomination; because it's "her turn". That's why the polarization. Because Hillary's supporters can sense her hatred of Obama for getting in her way, and they're acting out on her behalf...
And there are feminazis and racists. I'm not saying all, but to deny they exist is foolish.
They can't all be lobbyists...
For anyone who is "for" Obama or Clinton that refuses to vote for the other or vote for McCain, it only shows your lack of character and weakness of conviction. And I'm saying this as an Obama supporter and volunteer since he first declared, and I am a pledged delegate for Obama, and John McCain is my Senator.
To be blunt, if you truly support either Obama or Clinton, your ideology and political views are not so different from any other Democratic supporter out there. Their policy standpoints are similar, and the reasons for choosing one over the other are small in comparison with voting for John McCain, or staying home and not voting at all.
Think of the last 8 years and what has happened to our country. We've gone through so much and due to the poor Republican leadership (some worse than others) we were not united in tragedy but divided, and our civil liberties, security and decency as the greatest country in the world has been trampled on. John McCain has nearly promised to continue this path towards destruction, and in some cases (Bomb-bomb-Iran) make it worse.
Voting for McCain is the worst thing you could do to honor the candidate you support if they lose. Not voting is the same thing as advocating for McCain. If you really want to see this country at least move in the right direction, Obama or Clinton is lightyears better than McCain.
Thanks for the analysis. But I won't vote for Clinton because I think she is really a Republican. If you look at her votes -- for the war, for Kyl-Lieberman, sponsoring flag burning legislation, against use of cluster bombs... Sure she campaigns to the left. But she votes to the right. Parroting Bush's lies about WMD and Sadam's supposed ties to Al Q on the Floor of the Senate only reinforces my belief that she is a Republican. She even campaigns like a republican. Fox news supports her. I could go on. I'm not going to refuse to vote for her because I'm angry. I'm not voting for her because I don't think she will end the war or keep her promises... at ALL. I'd rather vote for McCain, give him the WH and let the crumbling economy and war fall on his shoulders. If Clinton gets in and does nothing, then the democratic party will be tarred once again as being weak and ineffective.
Amen... well said!
I agree with a lot of what you said about Clinton, but I still believe that some Republicans are better than others (I can hardly believe I said that!). And I'd rather have Clinton over McCain - I would prefer not to have a draft or WWIII in my lifetime, which is almost assured if McCain gets the WH. Without the votes for the Dem, which I'm sure will be Obama, McCain has a very good chance of winning. Too much damage can be done in 4 years.
And if Clinton does get the nom - I will be campaigning hard - for my local Dems to take out the Repubs in my state.
And she'll "obliterate" Iran.
I can't abide a liar. I cannot vote for her. I can't. It's a real problem for me - I don't want McCain, but I cannot vote for Hillary - I have lost all respect for her. Do anything, say anything - turns my stomach.
Gen, I was just ready to type down my reaction to this piece when I saw you already wrote pretty much everything I needed to say. So thank you. I am also an Obama supporter and feel the same annoyance or even outrage at these big, fat babies crying about their superior candidate. No doubt many of these idiots have never bothered to vote; now suddenly they have it all figured out in their tiny heads just how this election ought to play out. Maybe they should stay out altogether.
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Posted April 24, 2008 | 08:29 AM (EST)