I don’t know how much of this is news media hype, and how much of it is real, but we’re still hearing stories about disguntled Hillary supporters who don’t like Obama. Eli Saslow of the Washington Post interviewed some Clinton delegates after the Senator’s speech last night who said they still would not vote for or support Obama. One said she would vote for McCain in November. Another wore a button that said “Obamination Scares the Hell Out of Me.”
Every now and then a pundit will say that Obama ought to be doing more to win over these voters. He needn’t waste his time; if Senator Clinton’s speech last night didn’t do it, nothing will. These people are, as they say, stuck on stupid.
Saslow writes,
Clinton said Tuesday night that it is Obama’s convention. But many of her supporters came here exclusively to honor her. One group traveled from New York and built an impromptu museum commemorating Clinton’s historic campaign. Another lighted thousands of candles in a park to symbolize her widespread support.
On Tuesday morning, hundreds of loyalists formed a 200-yard parade and marched through downtown. They shouted into loudspeakers and beat drums, creating a cacophony that echoed across the blocks. As they began marching, some of the supporters chanted, “We want a roll call.” Many of them wore their opinions on T-shirts: Country Over Party. Damn, We Wish You Were President. Still Making History. Democrats Left Behind.
At the front of the parade route, one banner summarized their message: Hillary. Who Else?
And they call Obama supporters naive cult followers.
So what’s happening with the Hillary worshipers? I’m not sure if it qualifies as a cult of personality, but it’s obvious that the actual, flesh-and-blood Hillary Clinton is irrelevant to this group. They are infatuated with a projection of Hillary Clinton they’ve created in their own minds, and this projection has little to do with the real woman.
That’s why they’re not listening to the real woman; they’re listening to the play-pretend Hillary who lives in their heads. And since the play-pretend Hillary was created out of their own egos and personal grievances, they aren’t likely to let go of her for a long, long time. If ever. And there’s nothing that Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton or God Almighty can say to these people that will change their minds.
BTW, for those of you who missed it, here is Senator Clinton’s speech:
See also No More Mr. Nice Blog.
One said she would vote for McCain in November.
Jeebus, that crap has to stop.
McCain is anti-choice, anti-working class, anti-intellectual, anti-green, pro-preemptive war, pro-Big Oil, and let’s not get into what he wants to do to the employer-provided health insurance of millions of Americans. In short, John McCain would be an effing awful president.
And, let’s be clear: Anyone who votes for McCain will be voting for his effing awful policies. They will no longer be able to consider themselves feminists, progressives, or Democrats. They will just, eventually, be very very sorry.
I’m not sure the PUMAs have any political compass other than their own grievances. Senator Clinton got their support by manipulating their emotions, and now that she’s done with them the McCain campaign is stepping in and manipulating their emotions. There is not much in the way of active cognition going on in this group, however.
I’m reminded of the old Francois Truffaut movie “The Story of Adele H.” Based on the true story of Victor Hugo’s daughter who was obsessively in love with a man she followed to Nova Scotia and then Barbados, and who ended up going completely mad, spending the remainder of her life in an asylum. At some point toward the end, wandering around Barbados in a romantic haze searching for the man she loves, she actually passes him on the street without recognizing him.
Dave, yes, that’s exactly what I’m talking about.
I’m reminded of all the pundits, mostly pro-Clinton like Bill Press, who gushed endlessly about how great it was for the party as the nomination battle went on and on, even after it was long apparent that Hillary would never get enough delegates to win.
I think now the Democrats are so divided that Obama’s chances of winning are not that great. The irony is that in 2012 when Hillary wins the nomination we’ll see the entire situation reversed.
Obama will now be left with his base of African-Americans, younger voters and the college educated “elitists”. In 2012, Hillary will be left with her base of women and older whites. She won’t win, either.
The Democrats never fail to set records for utter stupidity.
Sometimes I wonder if these supporters are real Democrats or if they are infiltrators from the RNC. I remember back two years or so ago when there first was talk of Clinton running and any number of pundits said it was a great idea because of name recognition, etc. I thought then it was horrible because the Republicans in Congress had spent $40 million to bring the Clintons down. I knew Republicans wouldn’t vote for her. I still think that. So the PUMAs have to be infiltrators and outside agitators. Anyway, I wish they’d keep quiet now and let the rest of us work on getting Obama elected and talking about policy and not personalities.
Pug — earlier this week Chuck Todd of MSNBC said that the nomination battle was all but over at the end of February. By then Clinton had only about a 10 percent chance of winning, and even that depended on an Obama implosion. She and the media built an illusion of a much closer race, and many of her followers bought into that illusion. They believed she was winning long after she had already lost, and couldn’t understand why so many wanted her to stop fighting.
Meanwhile, Obama supporters could see that all she was doing by dragging out the Endless Primary was creating division in the Party and reducing Obama’s chances of winning in November.
If Obama loses in November, and assuming there’s still a United States of America holding elections in 2012, I don’t think Clinton is going to be the inevitable nominee. A lot of people are willing to forgive her and Bill for their bad behavior only if Obama wins.
Ironically, I think her political future — as a leader of the Dem party if not POTUS — depends on Obama winning.
Maha, I agree about Hillary’s political future and think further that her future lies in the Senate and she has to get back to working for NYS and the country as a whole. I do think she has a lot to contribute but I think the presidential run was a bad idea from the start.
I have NEVER bought into the idea that these Clinton die-hards were closet racists, I think Clinton became a compelling candidate in the last month of the campaign…but at this point, and after last night’s speech, what other explanation is there for someone who supports the Clinton agenda to have such animosity towards Obama?
Maha, have you considered whether this is true of yourself and other Obama supporters, but in reverse? And that this was and continues to be a source of the reason that Hillary supporters think a good portion of you have gone batshit?
Those who nitpick are always going to find something wrong with the best speeches. This was one of the great ones, Hillary managed to remind us of what this election is about — not Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama. Where are all the people that thought for so long that “teh Clintonz” would “do anything” and it was “all about them?” You should all be ashamed of yourselves.
As for the PUMA’s…that ship may have sailed, and blaming voters is no way to win elections. But Obama has 2 months to give them solid, concrete reasons to vote for him. Not sophistry and name-calling, not insults.
Personally I was convinced last night — I felt like we were a team and Hillary had convinced me to support Obama. Then I woke up today & saw that the Obamasphere either wasn’t paying attention or had decided to further criticize this incredible woman for doing her all to unite what Obama fractured. Obama’s supporters and surrogates are his worst enemy, because you just can’t help themselves and you just can’t let go of the CDS.
Maha, have you considered whether this is true of yourself and other Obama supporters, but in reverse? And that this was and continues to be a source of the reason that Hillary supporters think a good portion of you have gone batshit?
Yes, I have considered this, because I am obsessively self-analytical. I perpetually question myself, my assumptions, my feelings. It’s a long-standing habit much reinforced by my Zen practice. It’s one of the ways I recognize pathologies in others, because I’ve found them in myself first.
I poured much of my self-analysis into a blog post I wrote awhile back. In this post I challenged Hillary Clinton supporters to some equal-time soul searching. I have yet to see any.
Certainly there have been many obnoxious Obama supporters who have behaved badly to Clinton supporters, but “many” is not “all.” Early on in the Endless Primary I went out of my way to try to be conciliatory to all sides, and what I got for my trouble is hate, smears, and hideous personal attacks from Clinton supporters. I gave up.
There has been a lot of ugliness on all sides of this issue. I have yet to see Clinton supporters take responsibility for the ugliness coming from their side. Everything is Obama’s fault. And we should be ashamed of ourselves? Get a grip, toots.
Iris – project much? What did Obama fracture anyway? Clinton created a Frankenstein monster by stoking the fires of gender resentment and victim identity, and she can’t just wash her hands of it. She took a first step last night but she needs to pound it into the heads of her supporters, every day from now until Election Day, that no sane woman could possibly vote for McCain, or even stay at home and make it easier for him to win.
Personally I think Clinton benefited from a huge amount of indulgence and lattitude from the party leadership, owing to who she is and who her husband is, long after it became clear that she couldn’t possibly win, and she could only damage the party. If the positions had been reversed, Obama would have been dragged into a back room and shut down so fast, he’d have whiplash.
Iris isn’t noticing that it’s the PUMAs who are disrespecting Senator Clinton (the real one) now.
Sometimes I wonder if these supporters are real Democrats or if they are infiltrators from the RNC.
PurpleGirl, I’m beginning to wonder that too.
Thanks, Iris. A lot of us are reviewing our options for November.
Judy — can you explain to us what you could possibly have to “review”?
I voted for Clinton (thinks shrub and his cronies have messed things up so bad it will take a woman to fix it), but she isn’t in it now and it would be insane for me to say, “Well! Clinton isn’t in it, so I am going to change everything I hope for my country and vote for McCain. I am for Obama now! I think the tv peeps just keep spinning out this cr@p. Why don’t they tell me facts and let me figure out what is going on since everything they say seems to have a conclusion that I question. Just the other day yahoo had this tease for news saying Clinton got his comeuppanse..? I don’t know where they got that lead. The story said he wasn’t speaking or something, but why is that a comeuppense? He isn’t in the race!
I hate the spin on everything every news organization seems to add.
I want to know facts. I want to know who is throwing our future in the toilet and how. I want to know who is throwing road blocks in the way of alternative fuels. I want to know who is going to clean up this mess we are in and how and if it will work
and why it will or why it won’t.
Go Obama!
A post over at Pandagon highlights exactly what’s wrong with PUMA: Ms. Darragh Murphy, who founded PUMA, made one significant donation to McCain’s campaign in 2000 (gotta admit, I can’t afford to donate $500 to anyone’s campaign), but hadn’t made any donations to Clinton’s campaign.
I don’t know about the rest of the PUMAs, but I seriously doubt that PUMA’s founder ever supported Clinton.
http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/pumas_are_swiftboats_darragh_murphy/