Hillary Supporters for McCain: Principaled or Petulant?

[Ian David]

Sunday, June 22, 2008
Hillary Supporters for McCain: Principaled or Petulant?

What can be said about Hillary Clinton supporters who are now arguing that they should vote for John McCain? Well, for one thing they aren't a monolithic group — there are a variety of reasons and motivations, so it would be wrong to generalize. I think that they are making a mistake, but I think that some are making a worse mistake because rather than standing on principle they sound like they are simply being petulant.

I think I might be able to speak on this matter better than most because, to be quite honest, had Hillary Clinton won the primary I would have thought very seriously about not voting for her. I never would have voted for John McCain, but I would have thought long and hard about voting for someone else or not casting a vote for president at all. So I have an idea of what this looks like coming from the other direction and am at least a little sympathetic to someone taking this position towards Barack Obama.

Why might I have refused to vote for Hillary Clinton and risked giving John McCain the presidency? I live in Pennsylvania, a potential swing state, so votes like mine might have actually made a difference. Early on, I wouldn't have had a problem voting for her in the election and might have even voted for her in the primary, depending on how things worked out. Barack Obama was never my first choice, either, though I can't say that I had strong feelings towards any candidate early on.

Aside from all of the ridiculous attacks she and her surrogates made against Obama, though, one thing really stands out: her suggestion that John McCain was more qualified to be president than Obama. It's one thing to argue to Democratic voters that she is the better choice, but quite another to even imply that the Republican candidate would be a better choice — that's something that should be left to "independents" like Joe Lieberman, and it was the log that broke the camel's back for me. Now, you might argue that it wasn't really so bad or that however bad it was, not voting for her would be potentially worse. You'd have a point.



More:
http://patriotboy.blogspot.com/2008/06/hillary-supporters-for-mccain.html

These alleged "Hillary for McCain" assholes even have an astroturf campaign that trolls the Obamalistic Upoc cellphone text-message community. Obamalistic has over 300 members. The "Hillary for McCain" group has 27 members.

There is no battlefield too small, nor tactic too petty for the McCain campaign and their fake "Hillary for McCain" routine.

I do not for a minute believe that this group has any actual Hillary supporters.

In fact, IIRC, there is already evidence to the contrary (I'll go googling). Someone posted an article proving that the people in this group were already big Republican donors and GOP activists.

Also, the misspelling in the subject line was from the original source.

[BlooInBloo]

1. "principled". But they're not.

[ClassWarrior]

2. Chickens for Colonel Sanders!!

bawkkk!!!

NGU.

[BobRossi]

3. Logical

If you can't have the repuker of your choice go with the next best thing, her drinking buddy.

[crankychatter]

4. Republicans - nt

[smoogatz]

5. C: Republicans.

Hillary was the candidate the wingnuts longed to run against. Now that she's done (finally, thank God), all that's left to them is to try to rally "disaffected" Democrats to McCain. It's one of the centerpieces of his campaign strategy, believe it or not. To no one's surprise, it ain't happening.

[MoonRiver]

6. "princiPALED?"

spell check is your friend!

[Ian David]

7. That's the original headline. Who am I to argue with PatriotBoy? n/t

[Raine]

8. IF they principles there is no way they

could support McSAME! :mad:

[gateley]

9. Racist? nt

[Smear Talk Express]

10. Howdy comrades...

I'm a pro-war, anti-choice, pro-rape 'feminist' for John McLame.

[AllentownJake]

11. How many of these people really exists?

I hate polling data but if there was some angry Hillary supporter movement wouldn't McCain be leading in the polls right now?

[cbayer]

12. Not many, I would guess.

But, hey, why miss an opportunity to re-open the primary fights with Clinton and her supporters?

[AllentownJake]

16. Since

It became clear she couldn't win she has acted in accordance with her stature in the party. Except for a few idiots her supporters have followed her lead.

I'm sure she still thinks she'd be a better President than Obama and many of her supporters feel that way too. However if she didn't think that way to begin with why would she have run and her supporters supported her?

[Ian David]

23. I do not think, as I stated in my O.P., that these actually ARE Hillary's supporters.

Reading is fundamental.

[cbayer]

29. Yes, reading is fundamental.

Anyone reading the piece you cut and pasted will instantly recognize that the bulk of it is all the old primary fights and has little to do with the title.

[Tutonic]

15. RE: How many of these people really exists?

Ten.

[roseBudd]

26. They aren't numeros enough to swing poll data but they are very obsessive fans

I have read over 3 days of HRC's official blog comments (hundreds per day over a span of 3 days beginning with the suspension of her campaign and have been watching the PUMA Pac blog for a week.

[polichick]

13. Idiots.

[Rowdyboy]

14. Delusional and twisted....

Sick to the core

[Beacool]

17. The simplistic responses do not answer your question.

How many people who supported Hillary will either vote for McCain, write-in her name, vote for Nader or not vote at all, is hard to know at the moment. Some are waiting to see how Obama treats Hillary (is she offered the VP spot, does he help her to retire her debt, etc.), others will simply not vote for Obama even if Hillary was on the ticket too.

The reasons are as varied as the people and these are the most frequent reasons I've heard:

- First and foremost, Obama's lack of experience.
- His association with certain people: Wright, Rezko, Ayres, etc.
- A perception that he's an elitist. "Bittergate" is still being mentioned.
- Some think that his wife has a chip on her shoulder.
- There are still people who believe that Obama is a Muslim (13% of them are Democrats).
- Anger at the party leaders for "kneecapping" Hillary.

I'm sure there are more, but those are the reasons I've heard more often from people ranging from volunteers to voters. Heck, I just heard that today from a woman at church after the service and during hospitality. She said that she was not voting for president in November because she didn't "trust" Obama. She didn't explain what she meant and I didn't ask.

So, are all these people going to follow through with their current threat to not vote for the nominee in November? Who knows?

[MonkeyFunk]

18. If the author doesn't know the difference

between a principle and a principal, I'm not inclined to spend any time considering anything he has to say.

[Ian David]

24. Let he who is without typo cast the first stome.

Oops.

See?

[MonkeyFunk]

31. If somebody emailed me that rant

and it had that "typo", I'd overlook it.

But that was not an email. It wasn't even a post on a message board - it was a published blog. There's a difference in the expected quality.

[choie]

19. pricks?

[crimsonblue]

20. I don't get the Hillary-McCain supporters that are spouting of "votes"...

If you look at the process (ooh.. a bad word in politics, I know), Obama won fair and square. The mechanisms for appealing DNC rules was followed, and delegates were reinstated. What else do the crazies want? Obama to concede a primary season he won? Fucking nuts!

[Ian David]

22. AstroTurf. n/t

[roseBudd]

27. They believe it was stolen and that MI & FL were disenfranchised, that the race was tie & SDs stole

it from HRC when they selected Obama

[PresidentObama]

21. The media is overhyping the Hillary supporters for McCain B.S.

They're angry, not stupid.

Quite the opposite...

[roseBudd]

25. I read 3 days of HRC's official blog beginning with the day of her suspension...

Now obviously a candidate's own official blog probably differs greatly from a forum like DU.

My perception was that the supporters on her blog are in love with Hillary. Literally. I was struck by how often I saw "I love Hillary" and "We love you Hillary"

As much as their was love for Hillary on her own blog, there was very apparent hatred of Obama. He is referred to with every talking point, empty suit, thin resume, inexperienced etc. But they never refered to him by his name. He is BO, BHO, *62 (I have no idea what that means) and even HBO.

Knowing that the tenor of her blog may have deteriorated toward the end I then went back a month before Hillary suspended her campaign and did a search for the word "love". I only counted the equivalent of "I love Hillary" and "We love you Hillary". There were lots of them. I then went to Obama's official blog and searched for "love". There were none.

It struck me that this reminded me of Michael Jackson and his fans.

Now knowing that HRC's blog is moderated what does this say about the candidate's supporters and the object of their adoration?

And yes most of the moderated comments on HRC's official blog were stating they intended to vote for McCain. It is because McCain '08 gets them an HRC in 2012.

[Ian David]

28. Are you saying Hillary would have chosen Emanuel Lewis as her running-mate? n/t

[roseBudd]

30. LOL. No but these are a bunch of fan girls with a few fan boys and a token Gay Guy...

They are as they are depicted low information, there was no substantive discussions, they often would remark on their "computer problems" I did not view them as tech savvy. They also appeared to be formerly apolitical. While they may have always voted D, being a Hillary fan was an obsession.

What pisses me off is she fed this beast. She knew what kind of people her supporters were and manipulated them.