Hillary Supporters Meet with John McCain

Something extremely unusual happened on Saturday afternoon, Flag Day, June 14. A group of about 75 Democrats, ardent Hillary Clinton supporters, met with Senator John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee for president. Was this some sort of fringe group? Not at all. Just a small cross section of the Democratic party–black, white, Hispanic, Asian, male, female, straight, gay, Liberal to Centrist. So why were we visiting the Arlington, Virginia, campaign headquarters of Senator McCain?

Why We Were There

During a primary season that lasted six months, nearly 18 million voters chose Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton to be the presidential nominee for the Democratic Party. That was more votes than for any primary candidate in American history, and 300,000 votes more than the presumptive nominee received. During the last four months of the campaign, the punditry and the commentariat relentlessly urged Hillary to quit, despite the fact that she was so close in the popular vote and the delegate count.

Never before has any candidate been so incessantly hounded by members of the political commentariat. Not even candidates who were several hundred delegates behind like Ted Kennedy in 1980 who took his fight all the way to the convention. How come no one tried to hound him out of the campaign? The most common answers are sexism, DNC bias, and hatred of the Clintons.

Sexism

The appalling incidents of misogyny and sexism against Hillary exhibited by many members of the broadcast and print media, both male and female, were legion during this campaign. There were daily sexist jokes against Hillary during the monologues of both Jay Leno, the worst perpetrator, and David Letterman. The worst broadcast network was NBC and the worst cable network was MSNBC, with CNN a close second.

The sexism was used as a weapon by stations owned by NBC which include MSNBC, CNBC and several local stations. General Electric owns NBC so the question is, where did the order for the bias originate, GE or NBC news? Who’s the bad guy in this, the head of NBC News or the CEO of GE? My vote for worst person in the world goes to Keith Olbermann. This article in The New Yorker sheds some light on him: ONE ANGRY MAN.

Most commendable throughout the campaign was Fox News Channel, a station that actually lived up to its slogan, “Fair and Balanced.” A special shout out goes to CBS’ Katie Couric who made a point during her Evening News broadcast of noting the immense level of sexism used against Hillary throughout the campaign. Brava!

Millions of women are outraged at all the sexism and misogyny and take it personally as an attack on them, not just Hillary. They weren’t just attacking a female candidate, they were attacking all women. They were attacking the progress an entire generation of women thought they had made, as my wife put it.

DNC Bias and Hatred of the Clintons

As if the sexism wasn’t bad enough, Hillary was also placed at a disadvantage by her own party throughout the campaign, starting last year. A proposal was passed that went beyond the DNC rules and stripped MI and FL of all delegates for violation of the timing rule. Since those states heavily favored Hillary, she was immediately placed at a disadvantage. It didn’t matter that three other states also violated the timing rule.

A meeting of the Rules and Bylaws Committee (RBC) at the end of May resulted in the seating of all the delegates from those states at the convention, but with half votes, similar to the original DNC sanction for a timing violation. The half vote provision should not have affected superdelegates, but the RBC had no interest in abiding by its own rules.

What really angered Hillary supporters was the arbitrary way in which 59 uncommitted Michigan delegates were assigned to Obama while four earned, pledged delegates were taken away from Sen. Clinton, and given to Obama. That was an outrageous violation of the DNC charter, a blatant disregard of fair reflection, the basic tenet of the party.

That was the last straw for many of Hillary’s supporters, who immediately left the party as a result. Numerous new Web sites and blogs sprang up. To get an idea, see Just Say No Deal.

As for hatred of the Clintons, that’ll have to be another article for another day. Whatever the reasons, there was nothing to warrant the treatment Hillary received during this campaign. Also, nothing warranted the savagely brutal treatment that Hillary’s supporters received at the hands of Obama supporters, both online and in the field.

Bloggers and diarists supporting Hillary were called all sorts of names and dangerous attempts were made to uncover identities. Campaign workers in the field were subjected to name calling, harassment, and sexist remarks by SEIU members in Pennsylvania. Never before had Democrats been subjected to such treatment by fellow Democrats.

As Lou Dobbs often says, what in the world is going on here?

What’s going on is a blatant attempt to seize control of the Democratic party on behalf of the so-called Liberal Elite. They’re the far left of the party that despises the Clintons for their centrist views, despite the fact that Bill Clinton was the most successful Democratic president in 40 years. No other Democrat won as many electoral votes in those four decades and he was the only two-term Democratic president. Democrats lost 7 out of 10 presidential contests in the last 40 years.

Now, the far left is attempting to seize control of the party, taking over and remaking the party in Obama’s image, in a ruthless attempt to oust the Clinton faction. They’re even going so far as to move the DNC to Chicago and force party members to work for the Obama campaign. Should they be successful, there will no longer be a Democratic Party, just the Obama Party. And the co-mingling of DNC and Obama staffs–and possibly funds–will undermine election law limits.

Senator Clinton suspended her campaign for the nomination on Saturday, June 7. She said she endorses Sen. Barack Obama and that we, her supporters, should support him. Sorry, Hillary, as much as we love you, many of us cannot do that.

We have come to know Sen. Obama far too well to be able to support him in any way. Some of us have already changed our party affiliation, some to Independent while others have switched to the Republican Party. Many of us have joined the PUMA movement which originally stood for Party Unity My Ass.

We’ve had it with the far left, the Liberal elitists, with Obama and his mean, vicious, thuggish supporters.

We all continue to support Hillary and still want her to win the nomination, hoping against hope that something will happen to change the minds of wayward delegates who have gone astray from our Liberal ideals. We’re hoping they will come to learn the true nature of Sen. Obama so that they will shy away from him the way we have. We don’t trust him and can never vote for him. We think Sen. Obama represents a threat to this country, that he’s far worse than president Bush.

So, while Sen. Obama is planning to build a new basketball court in the White House, some of us are exploring our options. Many of us are considering voting for Senator John McCain.

Meeting With Senator John McCain

A bunch of us attended a special virtual and real town hall meeting for Hillary supporters on Saturday, June 14. It was part of his “Citizens for McCain” grassroots effort. We thought the Senator would be elsewhere and that it was to be a conference call event. We didn’t learn until the night before that Sen. McCain would actually be there. It was held in the McCain for President headquarters in Crystal City, in Arlington, Virginia. RNC Victory Chair Carly Fiorina, former CEO of Hewlett Packard, accompanied the Senator.

The women with McCain’s team were very impressive and extremely nice. They understood we were lifelong liberal Democrats who were considering voting for a Republican for the very first time. I tried to explain that it wasn’t out of anger or disappointment but out of fear for our country.

It was a very good meeting, full of Hillary’s supporters, many of them from NYC, in full Hillary regalia. John McCain made a short statement about his policies and positions, followed by lots of Q&As from attendees in Arlington, and conference call participants, mostly women from Ohio and Pennsylvania. Sen. McCain was very complimentary of Hillary, making a special point of complimenting her on her campaign.

Everyone was very pleased to be there, and Sen. McCain was in good spirits. The questions were all very good, and McCain’s answers were clear, concise, and direct. There were also some good laughs during the Q&A. One of the callers was a fire chief from a town in Ohio. McCain said he’d like to come visit and be shown around town. The caller happily agreed.

After the Q&A, McCain mingled with the crowd, signed autographs, and spent quite a bit of time chatting with individuals, including Harriet Christian, whom you may have seen being ejected from the May 31 RBC meeting. John McCain knew who Harriet was and was very happy to see her and she him.

Here she is on Fox discussing her meeting with John McCain, for whom she will vote despite his position on abortion. McCain’s position is irrelevant because he said he wouldn’t have a litmus or ideological test for judges. They just have to be qualified. He voted for Breyer and Ginsberg, for example. He held Roberts up as an example of the type of judge he would nominate.

He was very personable and easy to talk with. He reminds me a bit of Harry Truman. My father once walked along with him on one of his regular walks around the White House block. That was back when you could have that kind of access to your president.

The Senator even posed for some group photos, and I managed to snap a few with my iPhone.

Click here to view the Web gallery. (Note the display options at the bottom and the download button above the photos on the left.)

As you can see, the Hillary supporters were very upbeat. I didn’t take detailed notes of the meeting because it was being videotaped and I thought the video would be available on McCain’s Web site at some point.

Hillary supporters there were appalled at what our party has been doing lately and one of the staffers also expressed horror at the DNC’s move to Chicago. What might Obama do to this country with a compliant Congress? We’re looking to McCain as a last resort but we also want to see Hillary reenter the fight. I overheard some Hillary women talking about how much they wish they could still have a woman in the White House.

I know it’s pure fantasy but I’d like to see Hillary protest what’s happening with the DNC and how Obama’s taking it over, remaking it in his own image. I’d like for her not to support Obama at all and start railing against him and the party. Yes, just a fantasy because it looks like Hillary and Barack will be getting together onstage June 26 for a fundraising event.

What impressed me about Sen. John McCain was how forthright he was, how decisive and direct in his answers. No hemming or hawing, no ums or uhs, just simple, direct answers without equivocation. In other words, he sure didn’t come across as someone trying to sell you something, or someone who tailors what he says to who’s listening. Carly Fiorina talked with us after the event, after McCain left, and told us that what we had seen was the real John McCain. I’d have to agree.

I would have absolutely no reservations about voting for him if his opponent is Obama. Meanwhile, I’ll continue to do everything I can to promote Hillary and to defeat Obama, the illegitimate one.