Legal Commentary

Will McCain Go After Hillary's Female Voters?

By Jeralyn

Jane Hamsher at Firedoglake today asks whether John McCain will make a pitch for Hillary's female supporters if Obama is the nominee.

I spoke with a well-known pollster recently who said that if women think the country would be safer with McCain over Obama by 10 points on election day, she predicts that McCain will win. While it's absurd to think that McCain would be better than Obama on women's issues, these kinds of decisions are -- as Krugman says -- highly emotional. A pitch to "security moms," combined with an appeal about "elitists in the Democratic party" looking down their noses on working class women just might work.

I hope McCain fails in his bid for women voters, should Obama be the nominee. It's the last thing Hillary would want. And, Democrats who switch sides out of spite or revenge will get far more than they bargained for, including anti-choice Supreme Court Justices and right-wing ideologue federal judges.

Any Democrat is better than what John McCain is offering. Given McCain's age, his selection of a VP candidate will be very telling. I suspect it will be someone that can bring him evangelical and ultra-conservative votes. That makes his candidacy twice as dangerous.

Yet, Jane's post is correct that Obama's nomination poses big electability challenges for Democrats in November.

The answer, to me, is simple: The nomination is still a two way race. Superdelegates can still pick the more electable Democrat among not only women voters but older, rural and blue collar voters as well. That candidate is Hillary Clinton. [More...]

Jane ends with:

.... Does Obama try to go after the white male vote and shore up his military bona fides with Jim Webb? Webb's "Women Can't Fight" article will no doubt be resurrected. Does Obama try to help himself with Latino voters by picking Bill Richardson? Well, Richardson has notorious women problems (most recently his "Whizzer White" gaffe) that will come back to haunt him. Either choice leaves a huge opening for McCain to make a move.

Hell, if Obama can go after fundamentalist voters, there's no reason for McCain not to court the ladies.

There are commenters here who say they will vote for McCain if Obama is the nominee. I think they are wrong, and I hope they change their mind if Hillary is not the nominee. For every minute spent unproductively insulting Obama or vowing to support McCain, they could be writing about why Florida and Michigan need to count or helping Hillary make phone calls in MT, SD or promoting her efforts in Puerto Rico or letting superdelegates know why they think Hillary has a better chance in November.

The race isn't over. Let's stop the post-mortem and like Hillary, see it through. An uphill battle does not mean defeat. It means you try harder.

Comments now closed.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on May 26, 2008 (boomark / email).