Posted on 08/26/2008 4:03:08 PM PDT by LdSentinal
Minnesota's delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Denver will support Barack Obama for president and say the right words of unity even if it kills them. For several of the ones I've chatted with over the last few weeks, it will.
On Tuesday, the Democrats sent a former national chair of the Clinton campaign to the Minnesota delegation's breakfast meeting to urge the Clinton delegates to get behind Obama.
"When someone puts a mic in our face and asks, 'What about the Hillary supporter, or the person who supported Bill Richardson or Dennis Kucinich?' We will say 'We are Democrats,' in a way that it will be so shocking to whoever asked the question, that they will just stand back," said Rep. Sharon Jackson Lee of Houston, Texas. "They will say 'Let them just walk on by. There is some kind of glory walking by. There's a light over there.' We are Democrats. We are one. We are one nation. We are empowered! We are strengthened! We are Democrats!"
Rep. Jackson Lee hasn't met Connie Kafka of Wyoming. She is the Democrats' worst nightmare. She's not a Hillary Clinton supporter who'll hold her nose and vote for Obama. She's a Hillary Clinton supporter who's going to work and vote for John McCain.
And she has no problem telling you why.
She doesn't believe Obama loves America.
I talked with her while sitting on the steps of a row house in Denver, next to Red's Anytime Bail Bonds. Puma PAC, an organization of Clinton supporters who will work for John McCain, has rented the space during the convention. Signs for Hillary Clinton share space out front with ones that say Take back our party! Elected not selected.
Kafka says Mrs. Clinton is the "rightful nominee" of the convention. "She won the nationwide popular vote and one of the reasons the caucuses came out different is there was fraud and voter intimidation."
Kafka says the Clinton delegates to the convention, including those from Minnesota, have little choice but to back Obama because they're being told they have no future in the Party if they don't. And these are party insiders to whom a powerful role in the party power structure matters.
"They are still intimidating and strong-arming people," she insists. "What we're hearing is delegates are being taken into rooms and being browbeaten, being told 'there will be no future in the party for you if you don't fall in line.'"
She knows Sen. Clinton is in the same boat and has little choice but to support Obama. "I don't believe in my heart that she believes in her heart that Sen. Obama can lead this country," says Kafka, who has voted Democrat for 38 years and now vows to vote a straight Republican ticket..
"Anyone who claims to want to lead this country should at least begin by loving and respecting this country," she said.
"You don't believe that he does?" I asked.
"I do not believe that he does," she said. "His greatest gaffe was when he said, 'this is America, the greatest country in the world, now join me in changing it.'"
She acknowledges that Sen. McCain is unlikely to come close to pushing the issues that made Kafka support Clinton in the first place. "I believe that Senator McCain at least begins by having a general respect and love for this country, its people, traditions, and a love of the armed forces."
"Everything he's done has been a coldly calculated move up the ladder of politics," she said.
When the Democrats leave Denver on Friday morning, they'll be taking a headache home, too: Puma PAC, the political action committee formed by Kafka's colleagues.
As if Wyoming is in play, lets count on this Hillary hack to spread the word, especially in the swing states...
Sad that some of our own can't see this.
Oh my !!!! /laughs
This gives an even greater reason why McCain should choose Sarah Palin as his running mate. She will most likely help get the women vote, especially the disappointed Hillary-supporters.
I hope that the Republicans are smart enough not to try to get a big turnout among Hillary supporters (yeah, I know, the Pubbies are The Stupid Party - that’s why I’m writing this). They might vote for McCain, but I guarantee that they will also vote for the most liberal candidates on the rest of the ballot. This is a true double-edged sword - we could win the White House and have a landslide for the Dems in the Congress.
Me, I’d be satisfied if they were just tremendously pissed-off and decided to stay at home eating Yodels or getting drunk. I want LESS Dems at the polls, not more. The Pubbies should concentrate on voter turnout among their own and among Reagan Dems (or their younger equivalents). A fairly conservative Veep would help, a LOT, on this score.
Is she talking about Obama or McCain? I'll assume the former and I'm glad she isn't voting for the Annointed One.
However, she should take a long look at her OWN candidate before she starts throwing stones at coldly calculated moves up the ladder of politics...because those words sum up Hillary! to a T.
‘this is America, the greatest country in the world, now join me in changing it.’
Well, we know how marriages turn out that start off like that......badly.
When a Democrat member of congress gets out of line he will be 'taken to the woodshed.' In severe cases, such as Senator Lieberman, the party will turn on you and run against you. Democrats only tend to cross party lines if the bosses feel they need to for their re-election chances.
The GOP, on the other hand, glorify a 'maverick' who betrays his base and votes liberal consistently. They will continue to pump money into his reelection bid, even in the primaries.
I think there is more chance of a rucus at the RNC convention than the DNC convention.
"What we're hearing is delegates are being taken into rooms and being browbeaten, being told 'there will be no future in the party for you if you don't fall in line.'"
Sounds like Democratic Socialism to me. Very close to the behavior of the brownshirts in the 30s.
Truth be told the Klinton’s don’t think much of America either.
“‘this is America, the greatest country in the world, now join me in changing it.’
Moving forward is the sloganeering liberals favorite slogan, or so it seems. Try telling that to a mountain goat when it reaches an insurmountable abyss. It reminds me of my love affair with my 1968 Toyota 4Runner. When I got as far as I could in the sands of the Outer Banks of North Carolina, going forward was not an option. We had a reverse gear, and the tracks that led us to the immovable object allowed us to retreat, and to get home for dinner. Common sense was our guide.
Why I am a Republican can be summed up by those experiences, and reinforced by why mother bears slap their cubs.
Yeah, what do you figure the odds are on Lieberman getting a Profiles in Courage award?
I think anything he got in life would be concidered polically motivated, but when the history books about the war on terror are written in a hundred years he should get a few nice mentions.
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