McCain Reaches Out to Clinton Supporters
By Alan Stewart Carl | Related entries in 2008 Election, Hillary, McCain
Now that Hillary Clinton is finally out of the running for the Democratic nomination, John McCain is doing the expected. He’s encouraging Clinton supporters to back him.
The argument is obvious:
“I think there’s a lot of Senator Clinton’s supporters who will support me because of their belief that Senator Obama does not have the experience or the knowledge or the judgment to address this nation’s national security challenges,” McCain said.
The question now is: how many Clinton supporters can he woo?
This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 4th, 2008 and is filed under 2008 Election, Hillary, McCain. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
June 4th, 2008 at 9:22 pm
If we can answer this, we might know how many he can woo: how many Clinton voters were with her b/c of the “experience” argument she made?
June 4th, 2008 at 9:48 pm
Will Clinton supporters really flock to him after being reminded about his taste in Supreme Court nominees, his unquestioning support for a lengthy stay in Iraq, his support of constitutional amendments (even if only at the state level) opposing gay marriages or even civil unions and his equally strong support of banning abortion at all levels of government? Really?
June 4th, 2008 at 9:50 pm
And did I forget to mention his cloned from Bush economic policy and non-existent health care policy?
June 4th, 2008 at 10:19 pm
Undoubtedly, Jim S. has articulated the “Bush’s 3rd term” Obama slogan for the general. It is a good slogan for the base, but it’s not going to get him very far with swing voters.
McCain is providing shelter for Hillary voters to jump ship and they will. 18 million people voted for the woman and a sizable percentage of them voted for her primarily (not solely) because she is woman. Oh, the fickle winds of identity-politics.
Bush may be bad, but hell hath no fury like a woman scorned and it was the slow snatching of defeat from the jaws of victory.
June 4th, 2008 at 10:30 pm
The problem as I see it, is pretty much what Jim said. Anybody moderate Hillary supporters that otherwise wouldn’t have a problem with McCain probably don’t like his stance on the war in Iraq. Though my sense of things (which could very well be wrong) is that health care is not going to be a major issue in this campaign and McCain can easily solve voter economic concerns by choosing a VP with a good economic record. I think McCain could definitely pick up Clinton voters whose opinion on Iraq is not set in stone. Other than Iraq I think he has a lot of appeal to moderates who either think Obama is too far to the left or who think he is too inexperienced.
June 4th, 2008 at 10:37 pm
For all Hillary supporters planning on voting for McCain, remember this: nobody trusts a traitor, not even people on the side to which she defects. If you vote Republican in the fall, you can stay in their camp ’till you die for all I care. Goodbye and good riddance.
June 4th, 2008 at 10:47 pm
Fern, you think that strong Hillary supporters don’t care who gets on the Supreme Court given that McCain has explicitly stated that he will appoint judges like Bush did?
June 5th, 2008 at 12:14 am
The women probably do, but the white working class voters probably don’t. Working class voters tend to be conservative anyways.
June 5th, 2008 at 1:49 am
The numbers of Hillary supporters vowing not to support Obama are perfectly in line with similar declarations made in other contests. They’ll come around. Just like like Rush Limbaugh and the right wing who swore they’d never support McCain. It’s all a lot of nonsense. The only question is one of intensity.
June 5th, 2008 at 7:03 am
Of course, any McCain judge picks would still have to get through Congress. Given how effectively the Democrats have stymied Bush’s appointments this year, some folks may consider the threat less serious.
Really the President is constrained by Congress on domestic issues, so people who like McCain’s foreign policy but prefer the Democrats domestically may figure that McCain is the safer choice.
June 5th, 2008 at 10:20 am
Certainly the majority of Hillary supporters are going to go for Obama, but the political & demographic dynamic of the Dem primary has left him uniquely vulnerable. Again, identity-politics leave nasty, infected wounds. Obviously, it is for this very reason that Obama is contemplating Sebelius (although I don’t think he’s going to pick her.)
It would be a catrastrophic mistake for Obama to start running a “Roe v. Wade”/”Lawerence v. Texas” campaign against McCain. Obama needs to take a hard right turn to the center. If this young man gets further to the Left, he’ll drive off the road completely.
June 5th, 2008 at 11:45 am
I’d hate to say it but many voters who were pulling for Sen Clinton will vote for McCain. It won’t be because of political belief it will be because of race. Ever since 9-11 we’ve isolated ourselves more and more from the world. Other economies are sky rocketing while ours spirals down. We need to have better foreign relations if we want to stay afloat, Obama will make this happen. McCains records are rough, I encourage everyone to research him further. He is not a man to be trusted.
June 5th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
The number of insane clinton supporters who are holed up in their fortresses of insanity (see, e.g., http://www.hillaryclintonforum.net/ or the Harriet Christian video, which all of them seem to adore) is astounding. Everyone is upset if the candidate they were rooting for in a primary gets defeated, but these folks have clearly lost any attachment to sanity that they ever had. I have never seen a group of people so intensely worked up about being defeated, and so easily manipulated by the Republicans into believing any manner of ridiculous assertions that will justify a hatred of Obama.
I have come to the conclusion that most of these people are closet racists — how else can you explain the myriad delusions they have about him (e.g., he is a liar, crook, dishonest, “cocky,” “inadequate black male,” etc. — all pure fantasy) without a shred of evidence whatsoever to support them. I can’t believe the number of times that Obama himself has been called a sexist without a single iota of evidence to support such a claim. Clearly, people who believe such things are hiding something, and it is patently obvious what it is.
And so, I believe we will lose a lot of Clinton-supporting Democrats who are racists at heart — who are the type of people that you think of when you are worrying whether the best candidate is the right one because they’re too “liberal” or “elitist.” I say good riddance. The Democratic party has, for too long, been held captive by these people — they are the reason why Clinton had to pander to the hawks with her war vote, and they are the reason why we can’t even hint at having a sensible policy on defense. Even if they cost us yet another election, they must be ejected from the party at any cost, and we may have finally found a way to do so.
What will be very funny to watch is all of these crazies try to justify their departure of the DNC and their flocking to McCain AFTER Hillary throws her support to Obama and gives a message of party unity on Saturday. I guarantee you that they will, like all clinically psychotic people, come up with some rationalization for doing exactly what their insane minds tell them to and avoiding any and all consideration of reality. I’m placing a bet on “Hillary Clinton has been cloned by the DNC and the real Hillary is in a bunker somewhere in Antarctica! Don’t trust the clone!!”
Good times.
June 14th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
Black people didn’t vote for Bill Clinton because of his color, but black people will vote for Obama because he is black. This is racist. Fellow Hillary supporters, please don’t vote for Obama. Obama and his supporters totally disrespected (and still do) Senator Clinton and us Clinton supporters. The DNC, only cares about half of the democrats in their party, so why let them con you into putting the DNC above the country.