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Many Clinton Backers Say Obama Won't Fall Victim To 'Residue Of Anger'
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Published: June 14, 2008
Updated: 06/14/2008 12:13 am
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TAMPA - Former Tampa Mayor Sandy Freedman will vote for Barack Obama, but won't work for the campaign as she would have for Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Feminist and historian Doris Weatherford of Seffner will back Obama, but thinks American women lost a historic opportunity when Clinton's campaign ended.
And University of Tampa student Emily Yandle says with Clinton out of the race, she probably won't vote at all.
They're examples of a problem facing the Obama campaign: Women voters who were enthusiastic for Clinton but are making the transition to Obama grudgingly or not at all.
Many are angry about what they consider the sexist treatment of Clinton's campaign by her opponents and the news media. Although they may not blame Obama for that, the resentment makes it tough for them to accept her loss and his win.
In the past week, the McCain campaign has sought to take advantage of the situation by emphasizing Clinton supporters who are shifting to McCain and setting up an organization for Democrats and independents to back McCain.
But Obama campaigners, citing polling evidence, contend the problem is solving itself.
Women voters, they say, are coming over to Obama from Clinton and will continue to because of his stands on issues important to them: abortion, education, health care and the economy.
Focusing On The Issues
In a phone-in news conference this week, Obama marshaled female supporters to make his arguments, including Ellen Malcolm of Emily's List, the nation's leading feminist-oriented political action group, and U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Weston, formerly one of Clinton's national campaign co-chairs.
"The McCain campaign has been talking about the mythology of wanting to pick up women voters - that's a pipe dream," Malcolm said.
Wasserman Schultz said many women have a perception of John McCain as a moderate, but will change that view when they learn that he supports a nationwide abortion ban.
"There is a real fear that John McCain will be dangerous for women," she said.
They described a Gallup poll released last week showing Obama making gains among women since Clinton ended her campaign and he became the nominee:
•Overall, Obama jumped from a tie to a six-point lead over McCain among all voters - the predictable bump from becoming the nominee.
•Among women older than 50, Clinton's core supporters, Obama trailed McCain before clinching the nomination, but now leads by six points.
•Obama's lead over McCain among all women has expanded from five points to 13 since he clinched the nomination.
Anna Greenberg, a Democratic pollster backing Obama, said that means he's benefiting from the same level of gender gap that benefited Bill Clinton and Al Gore - something John Kerry didn't have in 2004.
Not all polling data is quite that auspicious for Obama, however.
An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll at the same time gave Obama a six-point lead overall but showed him six points behind McCain among white suburban women. Pollster Peter Hart said they make up 10 percent of all voters and are "critical" for both candidates.
The Obama campaign is clearly concerned. In addition to the conference call, they held a dinner this week in Washington for female U.S. House members.
The evidence that Obama faces a problem with anger among Clinton's female supporters, meanwhile, is mainly anecdotal, but many experts say it's real.
"My inbox is full of women who are disappointed, feeling lost, not sure where to go next, angry and emotional," said Ana Cruz, a Tampa political consultant who formerly backed Clinton.
University of South Florida political scientist Susan MacManus said anger over disrespect for Clinton was a dominant subject of discussion at a League of Women Voters meeting in Sarasota at which she spoke in April.
"A lot of accounts across the country still say there's a residue of anger, and that women won't shift to Obama unless he puts her on his ticket," MacManus said. "Some will, but some simply won't vote."
Polls, she said, "do show a certain percentage coming around. The problem is, those are national polls, and presidential elections are won state by state."
Freedman, for one, doubts Obama can win Florida, which includes a disproportionate number of elderly female voters, Clinton's base.
Freedman, who became Tampa's first female mayor in 1986 and battled what she called the city's white male power structure, is bitter over sexism in media coverage of Clinton.
She circulated a compilation of television commentators making derisive comments about Clinton based on her clothing, her looks and even, in the words of Fox News commentator Mark Rudov, "PMS and mood swings."
Freedman doesn't blame Obama for that, but says, "He should have spoken out about it."
"Had something racist been said, everybody would have denounced it," she said. "There were so many sexist things said, and he never said anything about it. You speak out on the issues you feel strongly about."
Will Anger Or Support Transfer?
Freedman said Obama still could reap gains among female Clinton supporters by making a strong statement on sexism, as he did during the primary campaign on racism.
But none of the women supporting Obama in last week's conference call backed that suggestion.
"There absolutely was sexism that occurred in this campaign and I'm not someone who sees sexism around every corner," said Wasserman Schultz. "But I don't get the sense that women are going to transfer their anger over that" to Obama.
She said ardent Clinton supporters are going through a period of mourning.
After that, she said, "Most of these women are automatically going to come back to Obama" because of abortion, the war, health insurance and economic issues.
Weatherford said she'll back Obama because of those issues and others, but compares the situation to the Civil War era. Women's suffrage advocates, she said, put their cause on hold and instead put the war and winning freedom for slaves first.
As a result, women didn't get the vote until 1920.
"Over and over again women have put aside their own self-interest for other people's interests and we get shafted," she said.
Some pro-Clinton women are ready to jump to Obama.
"When he became the nominee, he got my support," said state Sen. Arthenia Joyner of Tampa, a staunch Democrat.
"The Democrats have to keep their eyes on the prize. It's time to unite and work to recapture the White House."
Reporter William March can be
reached at (813) 259-7761 or wmarch@tampatrib.com.
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