Keeping Hope Alive
West Virginia pushed back against the pundits who say Clinton can't win.
Hillary: It's Not Over
5/14/08: NEWSWEEK's Suzanne Smalley reports from West Virginia, where Clinton supporters are digging in their heels after a blow-out win Tuesday night. (Video: Lee Wang)
"It's not over! It's not over!" The chant echoed through the Charleston Civic Center last night as defiant Hillary Clinton supporters urged their candidate to keep on fighting. The almost all-white crowd included a disproportionately large number of elderly women. The sparsely decorated main hall of the civic center—the barren walls made it all too obvious that Clinton's campaign is desperately low on funds—didn't matter, because the crowd kept things festive. Teenage girls wore homemade T-shirts saying "Hillary's Tag Team." A young man standing behind the podium where Clinton delivered her victory speech steadily punched an invisible opponent with red boxing gloves. A group of union members launched into a booming "Madame President" singsong.
A beaming Clinton met this show of force with some forcefulness of her own in her victory speech, pledging to "carry on this campaign until everyone has had a chance to make their voices heard." There were shouts of "We love you, Hillary!" when Clinton thanked West Virginia for "this overwhelming vote of confidence" and scattered boos when she spoke of the people "who wanted to declare a nominee before the ballots were counted or even cast." It is no coincidence that West Virginia broke turnout records yesterday even though pundits have been saying for several days now that the race is over. More than a dozen Clinton supporters interviewed by NEWSWEEK said they believe Clinton can still win, and many faulted a biased media for prematurely writing her off.
Helen Lambert, 76, said she and her husband drove to Charleston for the celebration because "it's not over until the lady in the pantsuit says it's over." Lambert said she has been a resolute supporter of the Clintons for decades. But Hillary has a special place in Lambert's heart. "She's so brilliant and so experienced," Lambert said. "She's smarter than all of those men … I just don't have any room in my brain or my heart for anybody but Hillary." Phyllis Rutledge, 76, agreed, saying, "I know she's gonna be president."
Keith Gwinn, 54, said he blames "the media hype" for prematurely ending the race. "If it is over why haven't they declared him the winner?" he said in reference to the presumptive nominee, Sen. Barack Obama. Gwinn said he is eagerly anticipating the May 31 decision of the Democratic Party's Rules and Bylaws Committee, which will decide whether and how much weight to allocate to Michigan and Florida voters. (The national party stripped both states of their delegations as punishment for holding their primaries early, a decision that may be reversed by the rules committee). Barbara Yeager, 71, went even further, saying she'd like to see Clinton take her bid all the way to Denver. Yeager said a contested convention would be a way for Clinton to defy the media and win the nomination; she believes a convention floor fight would be exciting—and wouldn't hurt the party. "The media decides [the nomination] well in advance, and that's a shame," Yeager said. "TV has given her opponent way too much free time in coverage that she did not have equal access to."
Many in the crowd were hostile toward Obama. Jeanne Kendall, a 64-year-old lifelong Democrat from Eleanor, W. Va., thinks he's arrogant and said she'll sit out in November if he's the nominee. "If Obama wanted to win in West Virginia he should have made more visits," she said. "I don't think he thinks we come up to his standards."
There was an ugly tone to some of the crowd's comments about Obama. Menina Parsons, a 45-year-old Democrat from Milton, said she will not vote if Obama becomes the nominee. She said she is concerned about his "black supremacist" preacher and worries that Obama has family ties to radical Muslims (which is not true). Parsons said that because of these alleged ties, "if Obama gets in I'm concerned that the terrorist is gonna have an easier way in. I don't think he's real. I don't think he's American." Margaret Conner, who said she is "100 percent" Democrat, said she'll vote for McCain over Obama because she is alarmed by Obama's association with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and, more generally, she is suspicious of Obama's "background, his heritage." Conner said most of her Democratic friends also plan to vote Republican if Obama wins the nomination.
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Member Comments
Posted By: griffin1 @ 05/28/2008 5:23:03 PM
Comment: Comment: I just wanted to respond to this comment: He has manipulated the nomination process to defeat the candidate who has the best chance of winning the white house for the democrats.
As a true democrat I was willing to support either candidate that won this nomination, let's remember they both have similar plans and both respect one another. No matter how far this goes we need to make sure the democratic party unites for the good of the country. Now wether you were with Clinton or Obama we are democrats and I would have supported Hillary if she would have won the nomination. I don't think Hillary had any idea that Obama would have the millions of supporters behind him. Hillary also has millions of supporters this is a good thing people. But to say that Obama has manipulated the nomination process is not fair game at all. All parties agreed to the process in Michigan and Florida and if Hillary was winning she wouldn't fight this hard for the delegates, she now need these delegates to win so let's blame Obama. We know better than this, and whomever win we should support. For the people who say they will switch over to McCain maybe you were going to vote McCain anyway, because if we unite the Hillary supporters and Barack supporters McCain will not stand a chance. Barack is not perfect and he has experienced some mishaps just like Hillary but at the end of the day we need to stay united. Obama has not cheated this process, Obama has not tried to divide this party, Obama should not be blamed for what took place in Michigan and Florida, Let me remind you the Govenor's of those states agreed to this penalty as well. Obama is trying to gain the support of all parties as well as Hillary. Obama is not forcing any superdelgates to support his campaign, he is reaching out to them just the same as Hillary. Hillary has loss a lot of support from people who were in there campaign when her husband was President, people that were insiders and close to them. They all have switched over to Obama. She is still trying to convince the undecided to support her but they both are. Why Blame Obama for how this played out. Obama has a fundraiser online where any and all Americans can go and donate $25.00 and up, that shows there are millions of people who believe in his message because he is out raising all of the other candidates including Hillary. Hillary is still in the ball game yes we no that, but don't accuse this man of such false rumors when he is campaigning just as hard as Clinton. I give them both credit, but at the end of the day I am a democrat and will stay a democrat before I ever put in my vote for McCain.........
Posted By: griffin1 @ 05/28/2008 12:40:28 PM
Comment: I just wanted to say to the superdelegates and all members of the democratic party. It is clear that Hillary has decided to take the party down with her. She can't change the rules in the 4th quarter. She is making this situation bad really bad for the party to win come November.
I feel she will try to make sure Obama don't win this election because she can't take this loss and she is staging a bad example for all her followers to vote against Obama. This is total nonsense and dirty. I respect John Edwards who stepped aside because he knew he was not going to win and he didn't want to hurt his party.
Hillary and Bill can careless about who they bring down. If I was a superdelegate I would not by any means stand with them, She is destroying this party and her legacy. We will have a hard time against McCain not because Obama past but because Hillary has made it difficult to unite this party.
I am an Obama supporter but if Hillary would have won this election I would have supported her with no problem but she didnt win and she can't face it. This party is letting her run around like a mad woman attempting to steal this election. I just can't believe this
Posted By: griffin1 @ 05/26/2008 1:07:44 PM
Comment: Have you seen the lastest statement from Bill Clinton he is now stating a cover up is going on and Hillary is being disrespected. What cover up Bill - The American people are voting and Barack ended on top, I can't believe that they are going there. Obama out spent and out campaigned the Clintons basically because people want change is Washington. It is clear to me that Hillary refuses to face what is happening and she along with Bill will continue to bring the party down, This is very low I have no respect for you at this point. The things that are coming out of your mouth is ridulous GO OBAMA