Subscribe by RSSDemocrats for McCain - Or Are They?
While it’s being largely ignored by mainstream media (MSM), there seems to be a considerable movement afoot among several groups of democrats to elect John McCain for President, and that cause seems to have been taken up by the McCain camp as well. My curiosity was peaked after getting a phone call over the weekend from the new grass roots organization “Citizens for McCain” that was formed last week by Joe Leiberman. It wasn’t a generic recorded message, either, it was a real person with a great English accent who knew my name and ingratiated me to the cause immediately. As an independent, I was on his list, as it was a bi-partisan effort and a very good one.
Being the curious person I am – yes, curiosity may have killed the cat, but at least he knew what he died of – I did the math. Exit polls have indicated that up to 29% of Hillary supporters have said they would vote for McCain, depending on whose exit polls you’re looking at. While I personally think that figure may be high, if you consider that over 18 million people voted for Hillary it would only take around 5% of those voters to constitute a million votes for McCain. JFK won the 1960 election by only 100,000 votes. Hmm, that got my attention and made it very easy to see why the McCain camp would pursue the issue. This is the stuff victories are made of, just as it was in the 1980 election. According to the Washington Post, “Twenty-six percent of Democrats crossed party lines to vote for Reagan in 1980 after a bruising fight for the Democratic nomination between President Jimmy Carter and Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) — a battle that lasted all the way to the convention. “
As I began scouring the internet, I googled “Democrats for McCain”, and got over a million hits. Some of the articles concerning Democrats jumping ship for McCain dated back to 2006, so it’s not a sudden thing brought on only by Hillary’s speech on Saturday. But it was certainly spurred into frenzy by her speech, as evidenced on her own discussion board with many comments like “My sons did sign waving for her here in Wisconsin and Obama supporters yelled all kinds of nasty things at them and flipped them off when they drove by. We have Hillary bumper stickers on our car and Obama supporters would be rude to us because of them. But not once have I or my family been rude to an Obama supporter. I will never vote for Obama and support this kind of hatred.” I thought, could the behavior of Obama’s supporters have caused part of this uprising?
Most believe the Hillary supporters are just being spiteful, but it seems they have a plan. From the website United4McCain.com, a Michigan group of Democrats:
“In your home states, vote Democratic for all of the Senators and Representatives that are running for office this year. Do not punish them for the sins of our party hierarchy. This plan will only work if we have a majority of Democrats in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. Do your part to get every Democrat, EXCEPT OBAMA, elected to office this year. And then vote for McCain for President. You will have to split your ticket when you go to the polls. Yes, this is a labor intensive hassle, but you are doing it for your country. We must do what we must do to save our country from inept leadership.”
Some sites are subtle, some not so much, like PUMA (Party Unity My Ass). You can buy yourself all manner of bumper stickers and t-shirts touting “Democrats for McCain” at dems4mccain.com. All in all, Obama’s favorite and most successful strategy – the internet – is becoming littered with problems for him.
There’s a lot of debate going on all over the discussion boards as to why a Hillary democrat would support John McCain, and the hundreds of answers I’ve personally read vary widely from spite born out of losing to hatred of Obama and his supporters, all the way to policy issues, credibility, judgment and trust. Some say it’s because McCain is more Democrat than Republican, a line used often by conservative Republicans themselves.
As an Independent, I don’t get much flack for my support of John McCain. Because I’ve declared myself an Independent I’m entitled to vote either way. But declared democrats jumping ship – now that’s a rat’s nest. Or to be more politically correct, let’s say that will prove to be divisive, bitter, and damaging to the Democratic Party.
This commentator’s conclusion is that while Hillary and Obama were similar in their views on the issues, they were not similar in their values, experience for the job, or ideals. That match up more closely relates to Hillary and McCain, and therein will lay the choice for these Democrats in exile. We all know the stock market runs on emotion, and I have long said so does a Presidential election. Hillary supporters who voted for her because of her stand on the issues will probably continue to support the Democratic Party and Barack Obama. But those that supported Hillary based on character, experience, and emotion may well slide across the aisle to John McCain, and if the exit polls on the subject are any indication, we may very well see a replay of the 1980 elections.
Don’t discount a “movement” in America - it’s the very thing they attribute Obama’s success to.
Babs is a frequent commenter and contributing guest commentary author for YouDecide2008.com
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I gotta call shenanigans with your conclusion, Babs. I think if Obama had lost the primaries, and Hillary had won probably you would see a similar divide in the party - and you could be posting an almost identical conclusion here; that Obama and McCain had more in common in certain respects than Obama and Hillary do, and thus many of his voters would rather turn to McCain.
But the simple fact is that this was a tense primary season for the democrats, and it got pretty nasty. I think on some level, many of her supporters would feel like they would be betraying Hillary to vote for Obama after everything that’s occurred, even with Hillary advocating it.
And of course, until very recently John McCain has always been in good standing with democrats, at times even moreso than with republicans. You couldn’t ask for a republican candidate more friendly to cross-party voting. I’m not sure if the ex-Hillary, Pro-McCain democrats new allegiance is due to the similarities between the two candidates, I guess it could be. But if the tables were reversed I think you would see the same phenomenon from a portion of the ex-Obama supporters.
that’s what happens when we allow stupid people to vote…lol, plato, where are you…:P
I think that’s pretty unfair Josh. Candidates can’t be reduced to their platforms, and they shouldn’t be either. Obama and Clinton may have run on very similar platforms, but our current president ran on a platform where he spoke out against nation building, and called himself a uniter, not a divider. Remember?
Platform is important, but once that candidate is in office, the decisions are ultimately his. So voters shouldn’t be called idiots if they choose vote for a candidate they feel they like better, even if there are certain obvious political sacrifices to be made for that quality.
Indiminded,
I can’t say there would necessarily have been the same reaction with Obama supporters, and the Hillary camp was keen to that. I kept getting the feeling of “Hey, Hillary should win because you guys won’t jump ship to McCain but we will.”
If the tables were turned - really, really turned - Obama would have been told to quit after March 5th. Michigan and Florida would’ve never mattered (…), the Dems would be united, and Hillary supporters would never consider voting for McCain.
Oh Obama, why did you have to win so many states? Don’t you know that you’ve ruined it all? Why couldn’t you have just conceded and given Hillary the nomination? Why didn’t you just quit?
Right?
Right?
Obama 08 - - - White House or Bust!
As an unbiased observer of the Democratic primary, I would have to say that Obama supporters were much more aggressive towards Hillary supporters than the other way around. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard an Obama supporter call her a b!tch. I’m sure there are stories from both sides of the fence, but this was my experience.
Obama supporters are mostly uneducated, arrogant and aggressive people who do not know much about their candidate except his message of change. Stalin I agree with you.
Babs goodjob!
IndiMinded, no shenaginans with this one. Take a trip around the internet, it’s everywhere. What I didn’t put in the commentary (so as not to appear biased or promoting the movement, and I’m not - McCain can win without the Hillary supporters) is the list of the many websites devoted to this. If you visit some of them, you’ll find the same thing I did - it’s real people in large numbers and it could be influential in the race. Look at some of these, they’re posted just like this on many major discussion boards, I’ve just copied and pasted:
“HRC Supporters for John McCain.
Join the team.
http://www.clintondems.com/
http://www.swingcrats.org/
http://www.clintons4mccain.com/
http://www.donedems.com/
http://www.pumaparty.com/
http://www.hillaryunited.com/
http://www.savagepolitics.com/
http://www.nowewont.org/
http://www.shutthefreudup.com/
http://www.pumapac.org/
http://www.millionwomenma.....co/…
http://www.obamawtf.blogspot.com/
http://www.rezkowatch.blogspot.com/
http://www.pumapac.blogspot.com/
http://www.mccaindemocrats.blogspot.com/
http://www.worstlittlecau.....og/…
http://www.caucusconfessi.....gspot.com/
http://www.caucuscheating.blogspot.com/
http://www.florida-michig.....gspot.com/
http://www.politicaldisco.....t/….
http://www.independentsfo.....po/…
http://www.misshillaryclinton.com/
http://www.democrats-against-obama.org/
http://www.writeinpartyusa.org/
http://www.knowobama.org/
http://www.mudanpoliticalblog/
http://www.mccainb4obama.com/
http://www.hillaryisourchoice.com/
http://www.no-obama09.com/
http://www.demsformccain.webs.com/
Like I said in the piece, don’t discount a movement, elections have been won on them before.
“Obama supporters are mostly uneducated, arrogant and aggressive people who do not know much about their candidate except his message of change”
Whahahaha, this sounds very logical considering the fact that you think Bush has done a great job.
Really people, Obama has almost exact the same policys as Clinton and will work together with many expierenced democrats to solve issues.
Clinton supporters who run to McCain are really stupid since they care more about the personality of a president then his policys and they deserve another Bush.
p.s.
Obama haters are also uneducated, arrogant, agressive people who dont know much about Obama. You know the ‘ i aint voting for no liberal, farleft treehugging, socialist muslim’ people
I’m not arguing with your belief that lots of Hillary supporters are now supporting McCain. I’m just disagreeing with your reasoning as to why they’re now supporting McCain. Not that Hillary and McCain don’t share some things in common, I just believe that Obama and McCain share plenty in common as well, and so do Obama and Hillary. It’s a pie that can be sliced many ways.
I’m willing to agree that Stalin’s probably right, that Obama supporters were more venomous toward Hillary than vice versa, especially by the end. But everyone who looked at the numbers objectively could see that she’s had only a minimal chance of winning the nomination since early March - but rather than being even mildly supportive of the likely nominee, she was pulling stunts like publicly insinuating that he had a 16 year history of crime.
Obama wasn’t always the nice guy, but he never pulled out cards like that, and certainly not without some sort of evidence to back the claim. I mean, she bordered on slander with that - only she made sure to insinuate it rather than state it outright. Is it any wonder that Obama supporters grew cold to her?
http://www.fightthesmears.com
Obama_Sucks:
I don’t appreciate being referred to as “uneducated, arrogant and aggressive”. I happen to know a lot about my candidate’s stance on the issues and his layout of policies for his presidency.
Keep it above the belt, guy.
“I’m just disagreeing with your reasoning as to why they’re now supporting McCain.”
I can accept that IndiMinded, but understand this was not an opinion I just pulled out of my hat. It’s a conclusion I came to after reading websites and posts from this group for a solid week. I drew my conclusions based 100% from everything THEY said, my personal feelings are much the same as yours about the situation itself - the two groups have treated each other badly in general. The Obama supporters (some of them) treat McCain supporters the same way. I have to say I haven’t had that kind of treatment from a Hillary supporter yet.
O_S, Michelle is one of many who are very educated about their candidate. Many aren’t, but Michelle’s not one of them.
Thanks Babs, the same goes for you.
Let’s throw an interesting statistic in the pot this morning. The media mostly attributes the Hillary supporters moving to McCain to be women, and to the sexist factor, right? And GF is one of the main touters of this, and shame on her. I think that paints a picture of women in the 60’s more than women in the 21st century, and it’s discounting the following facts:
“Currently, 21.6 million small businesses file under the individual income tax. In 2006 there were 10.6 million privately-held WOMEN-owned businesses in the United States employing 19.1 million people and generating $2.46 trillion in sales. Women- owned businesses are growing at almost triple the rate as other businesses.” See, we’ve been to the wizard and we got ourselves a brain.
Now, as a woman and a business owner, my issues when choosing a candidate are admittedly different than those of my 90 year old mother. Her financial issues lean more towards the candidate’s stance on Social Security, because that’s her livelyhood now. She has made her choice based more on morality and character. So one place where we might differ on the social securty issue:(just as an example)
Obama wants to do away with the sealing cap on Social Security earnings. Fine for Mom, not so fine for me. It reduces my budget for hiring if I have to continue to match SS withholding for those that hit the cap. Less money for hiring, less employees. No good for me, no good for the economy, no good for employment rates.
Obama wants to raise the estate tax. This affects both my Mom and me - her because anything she and Dad amassed to leave me will be worth virtually half its value after Obama’s new tax gets through with it and it’s disconserting to think you’ve wasted the effort. Me, for the same reason.
Obama’s proposal to raise income tax on those earning over $250,000 py sounds good on the surface, until you factor in the above that 21.6 million small businesses file under the individual income tax. That throws these small businesses (like FARMERS) into that pile, and when that happens watch the price of groceries go through the roof (for just one thing). That one affects us all.
These are just examples, but they are some of the issues that just might be more on the minds of some of these women than the touted sexism theory. And I think we’re not giving that the audience it deserves. It’s a little insulting to think that women are so inconsequential in the grand scheme of things that the only reason “we” could possibly vote for McCain if “we” had previously endorsed Hillary is sexism, or spite, or racism, or PMS. Women are a driving force in America’s economy, on every level. Discounting that by either candidate……….big mistake. Big mistake.
That’s a very well explained reasoning as to why small business owners who file as “individual” would fiercely oppose Obama. I give you high marks for pointing out that hidden cost in his plan. But what you don’t address is why the people leaning away from Obama for this reason would be disproportionately female.
If this were the real cause, I don’t think you would see the gender gap that GF and others are speculating exists
IndiMinded, I don’t think that they would be. The point was, I suppose, that everyone seems to be discounting this moving away by Hillary supporters to be a “woman” thing, and I’m simply saying that’s nothing to discount. Women are not just the little homemakers anymore, they make up a large block of very real contributors to the economy. I think CF is very offbase to try to make this a gender and sexism thing.
And I don’t agree with GF, I didn’t see a gender gap especially in the movement. I saw men, women, blacks and whites across a spectrum of ages.
I think it is incorrect to say if Hillary Clinton had won there would have been just as much of a divide. There is mathematical proof that shows the numbers were fixed to get Barack Obama in.
I’ve designed Protest Postcards to show the fraud. http://www.POSTCARD-BRIGADE.com
Just click on picture number to to see the 555 card.
I have a feeling RACE is at the root of the issue of all these DEMOCRATS not voting for Barack Obama!! I dont get these clinton supporters who would vote for McCain…It makes no sense!! it goes to show people voting with emotions not their head!! Vote for Mccain then Bush might as well stay another 4 years!!