2008 Woodie Awards
Democrats: Will women be upset if Clinton is pushed out?
By: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Issue date: 3/31/08 Section: Nation
NEW ALBANY, Ind. - Debra Starks has heard the calls for Hillary Rodham Clinton to quit the presidential race, and she's not happy about it.
The 53-year old Wal-Mart clerk, so bedecked with Clinton campaign buttons most days that friends call her "Button Lady," thinks sexism is playing a role in efforts to push the New York senator from the race. Starks wants Clinton to push back.
"The way I look at it, she's a strong woman and she needs to stay in there. She needs to fight," Starks said at a Clinton campaign rally. "If you want to be president, you have to fight for what you want. If she stays in there and does what she's supposed to do, I think she'll be on her way."
Amid mounting calls from top Democrats for Clinton to step aside and clear the path for rival Barack Obama, strategists are warning of damage to the party's chances in November if women - who make up the majority of Democratic voters nationwide, but especially the older, white working-class women who've long formed the former first lady's base - sense a mostly male party establishment is unfairly muscling Clinton out of the race.
"Women will indeed be upset if it appears people are trying to push Hillary Clinton out of the way," said Carol Fowler, the South Carolina Democratic Party chair who is backing Obama. "If you are going to ask her to withdraw, you'd better be making a strong case for it - both to the candidate and the public."
Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy last week became the first leading Democrat to openly call on Clinton to abandon her bid and back Obama, a sentiment shared by many activists worried that a drawn-out nominating contest only bolsters Republican nominee-in-waiting John McCain.
Other Obama supporters have echoed that view while stopping short of asking Clinton to withdraw.
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson yesterday called Obama's lead all but insurmountable, while Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry said the contest would be reaching "a point of judgment" very soon.
"I don't think it's up to our campaign or any individual to tell Hillary Clinton or their campaign when that is," Kerry, the 2004 Democratic nominee, said on ABC's "This Week" yesterday. "But there will be, I think, a consensus about it, and I think it's going to occur over these next weeks."
To be sure, Clinton campaign officials concede her path to winning the nomination is not at all clear.
She almost certainly will end the primary season narrowly trailing Obama in the popular vote and among pledged delegates unless the nullified primaries in Florida and Michigan are counted - an unlikely scenario at best. But Obama is unlikely to end the race with the 2,024 pledged delegates needed to win outright either, meaning the nominee will be determined by roughly 800 "superdelegates" - elected officials and party insiders who can back whichever candidate they want.
The 53-year old Wal-Mart clerk, so bedecked with Clinton campaign buttons most days that friends call her "Button Lady," thinks sexism is playing a role in efforts to push the New York senator from the race. Starks wants Clinton to push back.
"The way I look at it, she's a strong woman and she needs to stay in there. She needs to fight," Starks said at a Clinton campaign rally. "If you want to be president, you have to fight for what you want. If she stays in there and does what she's supposed to do, I think she'll be on her way."
Amid mounting calls from top Democrats for Clinton to step aside and clear the path for rival Barack Obama, strategists are warning of damage to the party's chances in November if women - who make up the majority of Democratic voters nationwide, but especially the older, white working-class women who've long formed the former first lady's base - sense a mostly male party establishment is unfairly muscling Clinton out of the race.
"Women will indeed be upset if it appears people are trying to push Hillary Clinton out of the way," said Carol Fowler, the South Carolina Democratic Party chair who is backing Obama. "If you are going to ask her to withdraw, you'd better be making a strong case for it - both to the candidate and the public."
Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy last week became the first leading Democrat to openly call on Clinton to abandon her bid and back Obama, a sentiment shared by many activists worried that a drawn-out nominating contest only bolsters Republican nominee-in-waiting John McCain.
Other Obama supporters have echoed that view while stopping short of asking Clinton to withdraw.
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson yesterday called Obama's lead all but insurmountable, while Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry said the contest would be reaching "a point of judgment" very soon.
"I don't think it's up to our campaign or any individual to tell Hillary Clinton or their campaign when that is," Kerry, the 2004 Democratic nominee, said on ABC's "This Week" yesterday. "But there will be, I think, a consensus about it, and I think it's going to occur over these next weeks."
To be sure, Clinton campaign officials concede her path to winning the nomination is not at all clear.
She almost certainly will end the primary season narrowly trailing Obama in the popular vote and among pledged delegates unless the nullified primaries in Florida and Michigan are counted - an unlikely scenario at best. But Obama is unlikely to end the race with the 2,024 pledged delegates needed to win outright either, meaning the nominee will be determined by roughly 800 "superdelegates" - elected officials and party insiders who can back whichever candidate they want.
Viewing Comments 1 - 7 of 9
Oh Tham Eng
posted 3/31/08 @ 5:41 AM EST
Whatever, Students!
None of you will understand fully what the issues surrounding the War in Iraq and the greater War on Terror are all about unless you people read what your Mr Peter Hoekstra has to say in his WSJ article of 26 March, '08. (Continued…)
Tbone
posted 3/31/08 @ 10:56 AM EST
WHO FRICKEN CARES !!! Either Democratic candidate is a joke, and should both be laughed out, then bring a "real" "legitimate" candidate in to face McCain. (Continued…)
Greaseyspeaks
posted 3/31/08 @ 2:46 PM EST
CNN Political ticker--Clinton
How come S.C.; which is Senator Obama country, got to move their primary with no penalties; while Mi. and Fl. are removed from the process? I am stunned by the media bias for Sen. (Continued…)
Oh Tham Eng
posted 4/03/08 @ 2:36 AM EST
NO EVIDENCE THAT GEERT WILDERS LINKS ISLAM TO VIOLENCE---MUSLIMS CULPRITS THEMSELVES DID SO---PART 1
At first I was strongly against Geert Wilders' film "Fitna", because it was reported in the media that it showed a Quran being burned and Geert's actors spouting anti-Islam vitriolics. (Continued…)
Oh Tham Eng
posted 4/03/08 @ 3:07 AM EST
NO EVIDENCE THAT GEERT WILDERS LINKS ISLAM TO VIOLENCE---MUSLIMS CULPRITS THEMSELVES DID SO---PART 2
"The Fitna Firestorm---by Robert Spencer, Director of Jihad Watch"
http://pajamasmedia. (Continued…)
Oh Tham Eng
posted 4/03/08 @ 3:22 AM EST
NO EVIDENCE THAT GEERT WILDERS LINKS ISLAM TO VIOLENCE---MUSLIMS CULPRITS THEMSELVES DID SO---PART 3
Mohammed Bouyeri, the murderer of van Gogh, clutched a Qur'an as he told a Dutch court in 2005: "What moved me to do what I did was purely my faith. (Continued…)
a
posted 4/03/08 @ 4:57 PM EST
The jingoism displayed in the comments of this article is very disappointing.
Post a Comment