Democratic Storm Warnings: The Anti-Obama Vote
14 June 2008 7:12 pm by Taylor Marsh
An ongoing series on voter dissatisfaction.
BY TAYLOR MARSH
This is the most dangerous threat
to Obama in November. It’s what I’ve been talking about and wrote
about today. That Clinton supporters are going to ignore McCain’s record,
because their anti-Obama feelings are stronger than what a McCain presidency
would bring. …and so it begins. But this one comes from a delegate to the
Democratic convention.
So why is anyone surprised that when Clinton delegate Debra Bartoshevich announced
she had joined “Citizens for McCain” she was quickly made an example?
Debra Bartoshevich, a nurse from Waterford who was selected earlier this
year as a Hillary Clinton delegate to this summer’s Democratic National Convention,
announced this week that, “I will not be voting for Obama. I will cast
my vote for John McCain.”For her part, Bartoshevich has joined “Citizens for McCain,” the
group organized by Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman, the 2000 Democratic
vice presidential candidate who now sits in the Senate as an Independent Democrat,
to get Democrats and independents to support the Republican candidate.That has not gone over well with Bartoshevich’s fellow Wisconsin Democrats.
State Party chair Joe Wineke, an Edwards backer who is now enthusiastically
for Obama, asked Friday night’s opening session of the state party convention
to suspend party rules and begin an immediate process of stripping Bartoshevich
of her national convention delegate status……Two of Wisconsin’s most prominent Clinton backers, Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton
and U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin, D-Madison, delivered addresses hailing Obama…
The two Clinton backers obviously are aware of what’s at stake… for Hillary,
as well as themselves.
It’s only one delegate vote, but trust me, there’s a lot more where this one
comes from, on the local level. The trouble is that this could end up hurting
Hillary too. But no one seems to care about that repurcussion, or that Hillary
will be working against a McCain presidency. They should, because big time political
party payback can be a bitch, as Bartoshevich is quickly finding out. It would be worse for Clinton, because if anything but an all out effort for Obama isn’t made the blowback would be devastating, as it would if the candidates were reversed and Clinton were the nominee.
Bartoshevich has one choice if she doesn’t want to support Obama: register independent, which would cause her to lose her Democratic convention delegate status too, and rightly so. This reminds me of an exchange I had with a Clinton fundraiser yesterday. Lori Kreloff went off on me in an email exchange that had a subject heading, “wow…your audacity,” for deleting cheerleading McCain troll comments of hers, then proceded to chastise me for not “goog(ling) her” first, while bragging about her importance to the DNC and the Clintons, and that she was making sure “Hillary’s brother” and everyone else up the Democratic food chain knew “how awful” I was. I encouraged her to “yell it from the rafters.” My Irish-Scots attitude precedes any proclamation she can provide. After name dropping anyone she could, she then called me the “elitist.” She went on to say she’s joining up with “former supporters of mine,” also imparting that she’s now an independent and will work with them against Barack Obama. This email back and forth went on and on. Oh, and she’s also going to tell Donna Brazile on me! What ever will I do?
I have no doubt whatsoever that Hillary would disavow Bartoshevich’s actions, as well as any other Clintonite who tries to sabotage Hillary’s own power inside the Democratic Party. All that will happen from this is blowback against Clinton. That these party people don’t know this boggles the mind.
However, all this is playing out at the party level. At the average voter level there isn’t a payback
system. That’s the level Obama and his team should be worried about.
Democratic storm warnings, indeed.
