Posted on 02/28/2008 8:53:31 PM PST by LdSentinal
An anonymous reader writes:
"In your column ("Soaring Democrats could fall with the leaves," Feb. 17 ) you state, 'The total Republican (presidential primary) vote was down nearly 25 percent from Gov. Sonny Perdue's 2006 high-water mark.' You seem to hold that as a hopeful sign that the Democrat Party is somehow making a comeback in Georgia. That's wishful thinking on your part, but what this 25 percent difference no doubt really indicates is the magnitude of Republican voters who crossed over in the primary in order to cast a vote against Mrs. Clinton.
"I was one of those ABC Republicans (Anybody but Clinton) who happily voted for Obama with the aim of doing my part to keep the nomination from Clinton. It was the first vote I cast for a Democrat in nearly three decades (Jimmy Carter in '76 - fool me once ...) and you can be assured I will not be voting Democrat come November. Especially not for Hillary."
I usually eschew anonymous notes. People who are ashamed of their names often have other problems as well. However, this guy raises a good question about the extraordinary turnout of "Democrats." Were many of those voters primarily interested in defeating Hillary Clinton before she ever had a chance to compete against a weaker Republican in the general election? Barack Obama just happened to be the other person on the Democratic ballot, though he certainly received mountains of votes in his own right.
Look at the breakdown of the vote in Georgia's Feb. 5 primary. Obama crushed Clinton 61 percent to 31 percent. Alas, poor John Edwards, who aimed for the Anybody but Clinton crowd, received less than 2 percent of the vote.
One of my gifted colleagues prepared a color-coded map on the primary. We still do not have detailed results from the secretary of state, but the map showed Obama romping across north Georgia areas that until now have gone Republican since the Civil War.
When details of the primary outcome are finally posted, I suspect that Obama may owe his Georgia landslide partly to white males who normally vote Republican - and will again in November.
In our state, men voted with a vengeance against Clinton. Obama won 70 percent of the male vote against Clinton's 27 percent. Among white men (who usually vote solidly Republican), Obama won 48 percent, topping Clinton's 46 percent. Edwards was worth only 6 percent of the white men's ballots. In an exit poll of Georgia Democrats, 11 percent described themselves as "somewhat conservative" or "very conservative."
Obama swept young voters (ages 18-29) with nearly 60 percent of the ballots going his way. Clinton had to depend on the geezer class for traction. She received 63 percent of the 60-plus crowd, but it barely made a dent in Obama's triumph.
As the primary season winds down, I do not see how Clinton survives. No change of strategy will alter the outcome. Even a colossal blunder from the Obama camp will not propel Clinton to the nomination.
She will lose because she is a Clinton. White Southerners hate the Clintons with a vengeance. Only another Southerner, Jimmy Carter, comes close to matching the Clintons on Dixie's well-worn hate gauge.
One might theorize that some Republicans are engaged in a repeat of the mythic Lester Maddox gambit of 1966. Peach State political lore has it that a multitude of Republicans voted for Lester in the Democratic primary for governor that year. They believed Lester would be the easier candidate for the GOP's Howard "Bo" Callaway to defeat in the general election. They were foiled. Maddox became governor.
Could Republicans be trying the same move in 2008, thinking Obama would be the pushover? I doubt it. Even if some Republicans are engaged in such mischief-making, their numbers are probably so small they don't count.
Clinton also is losing because too many voters do not like the idea of a woman president. Hardly anyone will admit such to a pollster. Try sitting around a Legion post some afternoon and listening. You soon discover that no, sir, a woman just wouldn't work out. That's funny, at least to me. An aging KKK sympathizer would now accept a black man as president over a 60-year-old white woman.
The H-factor may be the most important element in Hillary's downfall - H as in hatred, not Hillary. The late and great state Rep. Joe Mack Wilson, D-Marietta, used to say, "Hatred wins lots more elections than love ever did." He was dead right. Voters nearly always are more inspired to strike out against a candidate whom they do not like than to beat the drum for a candidate they favor. That is why negative TV ads work best, and why Hillary Clinton is all but washed up in the presidential race.
They can't stand her because she's Hillary Clinton.
Why is that so hard to understand?
He forgets to mention whether Democrats have crossed over and help select McManiac.
In fact, I'm hoping for HRC wins in TX and OH so this can go on and on and get uglier and uglier.
Heck, if it came down to her openly stealing the nomination through threats and blackmail, it'd be the best thing that happend to the R party since Ronald Reagan.
Democrap party FRACTURED!!!
Owl_Eagle
”You know, I'm going to start thanking
the woman who cleans the restroom in
the building I work in. I'm going to start
thinking of her as a human being”-Hillary Clinton
(Yes, she really said that
Peggy Noonan
The Case Against Hillary Clinton, pg 55)
“Hatred of Hillary Clinton stalls her presidential bid.”
No kiddin’? Color me surprised./s
In our state, men voted with a vengeance against Clinton. Obama won 70 percent of the male vote against Clinton's 27 percent. Among white men (who usually vote solidly Republican), Obama won 48 percent, topping Clinton's 46 percent. Edwards was worth only 6 percent of the white men's ballots.
Shipp is onto something here...
Very strange to say amidst their perseverance to move the border. (BTW NC may have something to say there also.)
Why would people hate the wicked witch? “I have your healthcare right over here. And, bring your little doggie too.”
DITTO!!! Good post!
I think a factor overlooked in all this is how much hubby Billy-Boy hurt her with his stunts and big mouth. If I was him I’d book a long vacation in some remote country like New Guinea before she realizes it.
you can be sure hillary will use this at the convention and say the primaries shouldn’t count because republicans crossed over to pick the weakest candidate
Reminds me of years ago when I switched party affiliation so I could vote for Jim Florio in the ‘rat primary, thinking he’d be the weakest candidate for them - he won the nomination and unfortunately the race for governor, but lasted only one term after he put a sales tax on toilet paper among other popular measures - ‘pub Tom Kean beat him when the last votes trickled in at four in the morning that year and lots of us were elated - now we look back and wonder what we were so excited about.......
Perhaps it’s because Obama is trying hard to portray himself as a candidate for everyone — whilst Hillary is playing the ‘gender’ card with a vengeance. Hillary is calling on women to support her — because she is the female candidate. What does that say to male voters?
Hillary’s new career post-politics: replacing Helen Thomas in the front row in the press briefings. From your picture, it looks like her looks are already starting to morph.
Yup, summed up concisely.
I don’t understand you people who cheer on and encourage a *fractured* Rat party!
It’s not like they can’t and won’t coalesce around the next rat.
Fractured implies they have bones to break, they don’t!
They’re eels. They run and react like eels, schooling mindlessly. Having no skeletal structure, they can’t be ‘fractured’.
The beer gut, the dope culture and the trailer trash can never understand that.
Give me a Jeanne Kirkpatrick, and it's a no brainer. The female factor is a red herring, pure and simple.
That made me chuckle, because I have been enjoying doing just that since 1968 or so...
A tough broad for president.............in like Flynn.
Socialist panderer..........hit the road.
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