(AP Photo/Elise Amendola)
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JOSHUA LYNSEN
Friday, May 09, 2008
Emboldened by her West Virginia victory, Sen. Hillary Clinton’s supporters are encouraging her to stay in the presidential race.
“I do believe she should stay in,” said Mirian Saez, a lesbian and
Democratic superdelegate. “She represents half of the voting Democrats
in this nation and she owes it to us to stay in and be strong and bring
it home for us.”
But even after her 41-point win Tuesday, Clinton still trails Sen. Barack Obama.
According to CNN tallies, Obama had 1,600 pledged delegates Wednesday
to Clinton’s 1,444. Including superdelegates, Obama had 1,883 delegates
to Clinton’s 1,717.
Democratic Party rules require a candidate to secure 2,025 delegates to
win the nomination outright. About 190 pledged delegates remain to be
won and 240 superdelegates are uncommitted.
Ken Sherrill, a City University of New York political science professor
who is gay, said the few delegates Clinton won Tuesday failed to “give
her as much of a kick as she needed” to catch Obama.
“That’s nickel and dime,” he said. “That doesn’t make a dent in his lead.”
Some of Clinton’s supporters agreed the numbers position Obama as the contest’s frontrunner.
“I think if you took a snapshot, you’d have to say he’s ahead,” said Jeff Soref, a longtime gay Democratic activist.
They said the marathon is not finished, though, until the final primary ballots are cast June 3 in Montana and South Dakota.
“Listen, why should we stop now?” Saez said. “Why shouldn’t every state get a say in this?”
Sherrill said Democrats must be careful, though, to avoid artificially
prolonging the process and risk angering the very voters they’ll need
in November.
“It’s cause for concern in that you don’t want to reach the Denver
convention with the two sides at each other’s throats,” he said.
“Scheduling the convention so late and starting the primaries so early,
there’s a recipe for disaster in that regard, and it makes it harder to
heal the wounds of the primary.”
Exit polls from recent primary states Indiana and North Carolina showed
about 33 percent of Clinton supporters there would vote for presumptive
Republican nominee Sen. John McCain if Obama takes the Democratic
nomination.
But Peter Rosenstein, a Washington political activist who is on
Clinton’s gay steering committee, said such sentiments are likely to
change.
“I think all these polls will change once we have the nominee,” he
said. “I really believe that both supporters of Barack Obama and
Hillary Clinton will take a look at John McCain and realize that John
McCain represents so many of the things that they actually want
changed.”
Soref also noted that neither Clinton nor Obama has indicated they’re worried about a party rift.
“Obama himself doesn’t seem to be concerned about that,” he said. “So I
think if he’s not concerned about it and her campaign isn’t concerned
about it, then I think we have to let the process play out.”
Soref, who’s been active in politics for “close to 50 years,” said he
doesn’t expect the ongoing contest will devolve into the divided
Democratic contests of 1968 or 1972, when fights lasted to the
convention and yielded candidates who lost to their Republican
opponents.
“I don’t think it’s anywhere near that level of anger or bitterness or
personal animosity,” he said. “I think this is well within the norm and
I have no concerns about unity.”
Saez agreed. She said Democrats involved in the primary process are
enthusiastic about their candidate of choice, but ultimately will
coalesce around the party’s nominee.
“Right now, we’re just passionate about our candidate and it’s hard to
imagine that either one wouldn’t be there,” she said. “But we’ll get
through that. We are a party that can unite. And when the time is
right, that will happen. And it will happen in a way that’s respectful
of both sides.”
And that time, Rosenstein said this week, could be fast approaching.
“I think Hillary Clinton will basically move on through June 3, at
which point if Barack Obama has enough delegates to be the nominee of
the party, Hillary Clinton will be very gracious, and will be an active
and wholehearted supporter of Barack Obama,” he said. “And should
something change
between now and then, and should Hillary be the nominee, Obama has said the same about her.”
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