NEWSWEEK's Jessica Ramirez files this report on a late-season movement for Hillary Clinton:
As Senator Hillary Clinton continues to rage against the
dying of her campaign’s light, a number of her most fervent constituents have
decided to lend a helping hand. The
Ohio-based loyalists—mostly women—have founded “Clinton Supporters Count Too.”
Their goal is to campaign against Senator Barack Obama in the
general-election swing states of Ohio, Florida, Michigan and Pennsylvania, if
he becomes the Democratic nominee.
According to Jamie Dixey, the 57-year-old group organizer,
the media and the Democratic Party have displayed a sexist
attitude aimed at Clinton throughout the primary season. Dixey argues the
consensus among the Democratic female base is that, even though Clinton’s a
better candidate, she’s not taken seriously because she’s a woman. The group is
calling on superdelegates—decided and undecided—to start a public movement to
coalesce around the New York senator. “If our superdelegates refuse to consider
the consequences of nominating the weaker candidate, we cannot actively support
her opponent who we believe to be unprepared to lead our country in these
turbulent times,” they said in a statement released this week.
And just in case superdels decide to stick with Obama, some
group members have expressed no qualms with considering a vote for Senator John
McCain. Oddly enough, it was a comment made at a McCain campaign stop that
planted the seed for the group’s creation. McCain was in South Carolina in
November when a supporter asked, “how do we beat the ***?” The “***” the
woman was referring to was Clinton. McCain tried to laugh off the question,
adding that he respected the Senator. Later, he told reporters that he made
light of the situation because he wanted to move past the remark. He may have
moved past it, but Dixey did not. “***” might as well have been a call to
arms. It prompted hundreds of supporters, who are now part of the team, to
e-mail her and vent their frustrations over what was said. (Dixey was working
as the Clinton campaign’s grassroots organizer in Ohio at the time.) “The thing
that I’m most ashamed of is that we women sat there and let it happen,” she
says. “I asked myself, ‘why didn’t we do anything earlier,’ and the answer was
that we trusted that the party was doing what needed to be done and it would
all shake out in the end.”
Things have started to shake out but not the way Dixey
and other Clinton faithful hoped they would. Obama leads in the popular vote,
pledged delegates and super delegates. Clinton may be “the candidate of [their]
choice,” but the numbers say more people choose Obama. Even
Clinton—who has no affiliation with this group—has said publicly that it would
be a “grave error” not to vote for the Illinois senator if he becomes the
Democratic nominee. But that’s not stopping these ladies from pressing
forward.
Their first demonstration will take place Tuesday during
the Oregon and Kentucky primaries. The group plans to boycott NBC affiliates
across the country in light of the “sexist and misogynist attitude” that’s
prevailed on the network toward the former First Lady. “It’s only the
beginning,” Dixey says of their crusade. The reality is that, with
only five primaries left, it’s probably pretty close to the end.
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