Winning the Crazy Cat Lady Vote

As Hillary Clinton announces she is finally stepping off the stage, I was wondering how the Hillaryis44.com crowd might take it. Would they follow their leader and aid the push to make Barack Obama our 44th president?

Well, certainly this post today on the site shows that these supporters, many of whom supported Clinton simply because she was a woman, want to support the candidate who will make sure to end women’s right to choose:

I can only hope John McCain can beat him. I think McCain is going to need our help.

-- Hillaryis44.org poster

It gets worse. I was part of a group that helped discuss and formulate the Nevada Democratic party platform for the recent state convention, and our discussions have actually continued since the last gavel sounded.

Today, I got this disturbing E-mail from a person in the group:

I for one am not happy with the way the men in this party have treated a woman who has worked tirelessly in public service all her life and stood by a cheating husband regardless what people thought.

The media lost Hillary this election. Obama was on a honeymoon just wait. As for me if he does not pick her as his VP I may not vote at all this time I am so disgusted with the way this party is treating Hillary.

I am not working for Obama without Hillary on the ticket.

I just had to reply:

Simply ask yourself this.... Is it worth risking having McCain go into the Oval Office and ensure that the Supreme Court will not only take away women's right to choose, but have a majority to sustain that for a generation?

Is it worth going against everything that your candidate stood for over the past few months?

In the coming days, Clinton will endorse Barack Obama. Will you heed the call?

Guess I wasn’t convincing enough. Her reply:

My heart has been torn apart by all of this and I am tired of settling. Why are women always asked to wait you will get your turn. In my eyes this is the same thing that happened to women when they stood with the black men asking for the right to vote. Then what happened black men got the right to vote and said later for you women left us behind took us another 20 years to have the right to be able to vote. We still dont earn as much money as the men.

Why do we still have to fight this RIGHT TO CHOOSE issue over and over again. This is again an issue of a Womans Right and MEN have the audacity to use that as a wedge whenever they want women to give in to their side.

You guys need to make it understood that it is HILLARY or NO ONE ELSE for VP or women like me will not fall in line like dutiful women. NOT HAPPENING.

Now I sat near that same lady at the convention and even looked just like the crazy cat lady from “The Simpsons.” At one point, she was practically ready to attack two of my Vegas-to-Reno van mates who were doing nothing more than sitting still. They also happened to be black, which doesn’t surprise me about the racial tone her comments took.

The question becomes this: How do we convince crazy cat lady to understand the stakes of this election mean more than the cult of one personality?

Questions like this are why Obama supporters shouldn’t feel this is a foregone deal and a landslide in November awaits. The thought of an easy coronation to the White House is what did Clinton in, and we can’t fall under the same spell.

There is a lot of work ahead.

Who has Momentum in the General Election?

One only needs to contrast between these two pictures:

Barack Obama's big kick off to the general election June 3.


John McCain's "big" kickoff to the general election on June 3.

Seeya in November.