http://www.newsmax.com/politics/wooing_clinton_backers/2008/06/11/103686.html
Bullishly or Not, Clinton Sup****ters Accept Obama
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
CHICAGO -- They may not be falling in love, but they're falling in
line.
Prominent sup****ters of Hillary Rodham Clinton are embracing Barack
Obama, literally and figuratively, even though some remain bitter
about her loss in a presidential primary process that they feel
treated her unfairly.
In several key states this week, Obama is being joined on stages by
top Democrats who, a few weeks ago, were working to deny him the
nomination.
"I know I'm late, but I am on the train," North Carolina Gov. Mike
Easley said Monday in introducing Obama in Raleigh. "I'd rather be a
bum on the boxcar of the Obama train than at the front of the bus with
John McCain," he said of Obama's Republican opponent.
A few in the crowd of 900 briefly booed Easley, whose endorsement of
Clinton failed to stop Obama from an easy win in the May 6 primary,
which all but doomed the former first lady's hopes.
Other former Clinton backers also are jumping on the Obama express,
now that it has left the station. Introducing him at a St. Louis
fundraiser this week was state Rep. Rachel Storch, who was Clinton's
Missouri state director.
Later this week, two Democratic governors who helped deliver crucial
Clinton wins in their states will appear with Obama. Ohio Gov. Ted
Strickland will greet him in Columbus on Friday, and later that day
the senator plans to join Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell in
Philadelphia.
The governors lent their considerable prestige and organizations to
Clinton, helping her achieve primary victories so large that
Democratic operatives now worry about Obama's chances in the two
battleground states. Ohio was crucial to President Bush's narrow 2004
win over John Kerry. And Pennsylvania is seen as almost a must-win
state for Obama because Democrats have carried it in the last four
presidential contests, although sometimes narrowly.
Most of the late-arriving Obama endorsers are swallowing their pride
and beaming, publicly at least, at the first-term Illinois senator who
overcame the Clinton political machine.
Some, however, can barely speak the words without betraying their
disappointment that Clinton will not become the party's first female
nominee. Obama has a lot of work to do, they say.
"There is definitely a period of mourning that ardent Hillary Clinton
sup****ters are going through," Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla.,
told re****ters in a conference call Wednesday. "I think there is a
fairly large group of women that are going to need to be won over. And
that's going to take some time."
Wasserman Schultz said she believes most Democratic women eventually
will back Obama because, unlike McCain, he sup****ts abortion rights, a
prompt end to the Iraq war and other issues im****tant to them.
The conference call was organized by EMILY's List, a Wa****ngton group
that backs female candidates who sup****t abortion rights. Its
president, Ellen R. Malcolm, acknowledged keen disappointment at
Clinton's loss.
"Those of us who sup****ted Hillary go through a process of dealing
with our many emotions of disappointment and sadness and some anger,"
she said. "But we will focus on the goal, which is to change the
direction of this country" by electing Obama.
She sharply criticized the news media, saying its coverage of Clinton
was often ***ist. Groups and individuals who urged her to drop out
before the last primary was held were "disrespectful to Senator
Clinton," she said.
However, Malcolm said, "the election is not today. We've got five
months" for wounds to heal and for Obama to appeal to Clinton's
sup****ters.
Few states are more im****tant to him than Pennsylvania, where he lost
badly to Clinton among working-class white Democrats. If McCain could
manage a win there with its 21 electoral votes, it would force Obama
to compensate by winning swing states or Republican-leaning states
elsewhere.
At last week's Democratic State Committee in Camp Hill, Pa., some
party officials switching their allegiance to Obama barely bothered to
hide their reluctance and disappointment.
"At the end of the day, I'm a Democrat," said Gail McDermott of
Mechanicsburg, a Clinton delegate to the national nominating
convention in August. "The most im****tant thing is that we end George
Bush's policies and the Iraq war," she said.
Angie Gialloreto, a Clinton delegate from Pittsburgh, said she hopes
Obama will pick Clinton as his running mate. But even if he does not,
she said, "the people spoke" and Obama will be the nominee. "As
Democrats we believe in fair fights and party unity."
Even Rendell, a former chairman of the Democratic National Committee,
mixes his endorsement of Obama with wistfulness for Clinton.
"He believes Hillary would have been a stronger candidate," Rendell
spokesman Chuck Ardo said in an interview Wednesday. "But he will work
tirelessly to see Obama get elected."
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