Donna Darko

Women Threaten Obama Boycott

May 16, 2008 · 16 Comments

UPDATE: The Clinton Supporters Count Too website.

UPDATE: More on what you can do:

Riverdaughter: Friday: Fast II and call to action
katiebird: 400 bloggers fighting for Barack Obama’s desperate delusion?
Riverdaughter: Let’s Keep Our Heads, Conflucians
Riverdaughter: Action Words

UPDATE: Radio Talk Show Host Steve Corbett from Hillary’s home town in PA Has launch a mass campaign called OPERATION TURN DOWN letting the DNC know we will TURN DOWN OBAMA. we Will NOT vote from him under Any circumstance and he talks about their treatment of Sen Clinton. People called in from all over the states saying NO OBAMA. Hillary supporters now have a voice that will reach MILLIONS. Tomorrow OPERATION TURN DOWN continues at 3 p.m est this is going to grow MASSIVE LISTEN TO HIS SHOW.

UPDATE: Mystic4Hill: For anyone who’s interested, their group is currently in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Florida. Email addresses are:

HCFPinOH@gmail.com
HCFPinPA@gmail.com
HCFPinFL@gmail.com
HCFPinMI@gmail.com

HillBuzz:

Cynthia Ruccia, in Ohio, has started a group for women who will not support Barack Obama for president under any circumstances. The group’s name is Clinton Supporters Count Too. It is not outwardly associated with the growing Democrats for McCain movement, or the corresponding Latinos for McCain or LGBT for McCain movements.

The treatment Obama and his supporters have given Hillary Clinton and her supporters makes it seem highly unrealistic that the bulk of Clinton’s base would ever line up behind Obama, should he be the nominee. So, definitively, Hillary Clinton wants a Democrat to win in the fall, but her supporters largely feel she is the only Democratic candidate they will back. The consensus is: if not President Hillary Rodham Clinton, then it will be President John Sidney McCain.

ABC:

I’ve posted a few times in the last two days about female supporters of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton who are angry — at the Democratic Party, at the Obama campaign, or at the general situation that sees their candidate facing tough times, in their view, in part because of sexism.

Just talked to a 55-year-old Columbus, Ohio resident named Cynthia Ruccia, a spokesperson and organizer for a group calling itself “Clinton Supporters Count Too.” She said the group — numbering in the hundreds, and organized in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, and Michigan — stands ready to boycott the Democratic Party if Clinton doesn’t win the nomination, and will work against superdelegates who support Obama over Clinton as a means of registering their displeasure with the party.

“We have a plan to campaign against the Democratic nominee,” the group said in a press release Thursday. “We have the (wo)manpower and the money to make our threat real. And there are millions of supporters who will back us up in the swing states. If you don’t listen to our voice now, you will hear from us later.”

Ruccia tells ABC News that she believes “millions” of women share her group’s views, though they have only begun to make contact with like-minded women. They’re disgusted, she said, that Democratic Party leaders haven’t more aggressively denounced sexist media comments and coverage in the campaign, and are angry at the drumbeat for Clinton to get out of the race.

“We’re just at the boiling point,” Ruccia said. “Women will sit back and be quiet about things for a while, but we’ve had enough. Unless Hillary Clinton is our nominee, we are not going to support the nominee.”

Part of their plan, she said, is a primary-night boycott of NBC and MSNBC during next Tuesday’s primaries in Kentucky and Oregon, particularly to protest comments made by Chris Matthews and David Shuster that her group feels were sexist.

Ruccia said she doesn’t necessarily view the disqualifying of delegates from Florida and Michigan as sexist in itself, but added: “I do believe the people there will not forget that Sen. Obama stood in the way of having their vote counted.”

This is one group, and not a very large one at this point. But in gauging the fallout among female voters of this divisive campaign, it’s also worth keeping in mind what’s going on in the wake of NARAL Pro-Choice America’s decision to endorse Obama on Wednesday.

As documented by the Huffington Post’s Sam Stein, NARAL blogs are being overwhelmed, and many state affiliates are angry at the national group’s decision.

Emily’s List is furious. And Martha Burke, former chair of the National Council of Women’s Organizations, tells Stein she is “disappointed”: “It feels like they are abandoning a known ally for a less committed candidate because they want to jump on a bandwagon. I think the pro-choice community should stick by a woman who has stuck by them.”

It’s impossible to know at this point how big an issue this would be for Obama if he’s the nominee. But clearly he would have some major work to repair rifts inside the party — even if little of it is his fault, directly.

Categories: Race · gender · homophobia · politics · sexism

16 responses so far ↓

  • Clinton supporters count too | Writes Like She Talks // May 15, 2008 at 9:22 pm

    [...] Donna Darko with email contacts and Washington Post coverage (mentions a YouTube of a group member being on Fox but I couldn’t locate it) [...]

  • The relevance of Clinton Supporters Count Too | Writes Like She Talks // May 16, 2008 at 11:11 am

    [...] More contacts info here. [...]

  • truelyfair // May 16, 2008 at 11:27 am

    instead of voting for mccain why not put hillary in as a “write in candidate” on your ballots. why haven’t male democrats stepped up to the plate in hillary’s defense? let’s not cut off our nose to despite our face. if obama gets the nod, write in hillary on election day. sexism is rampant in this election.

  • catm31 // May 16, 2008 at 5:59 pm

    I am also a Hillary supporter who will not vote for Obama under any circumstances, however I am in New York, what can I do from here? who should I call?who should I write? I already plan to stay home if Obama is the candidate, but is there anything more I can do before November?

  • donnadarko // May 16, 2008 at 6:20 pm

    You can check for your state here:

    http://writehillaryin.com//Write_In_Facts_by_State.php

  • mcbee45 // May 16, 2008 at 9:18 pm

    I voted in the Michigan Primary and will only vote for Senator Clinton in 2008, either as the Democratic Presidential candidate or as a write-in vote.

  • rose2k // May 17, 2008 at 12:20 am

    I’m a Florida voter, I’m just waiting for the owners of the Democratic party(Dean and Pelosi ) to give the presidential nomination of the party to their practically religious leader Obama, the next day I will fill out a new voter’s registration card and I will be glad to check mark the Party Change section. There is no meaning on belonging to a party where your vote does not count. Well, DO NOT COUNT ON ME if you people decide that anti-women man is your nominee.

  • goodtimepolitics // May 18, 2008 at 1:03 pm

    I have a feeling that many of us will be voting for McCain or siting it out at home. But I do suggest that people that will not vote for Obama should vote for McCain as a no vote would still be helping obama! I wish Hillary could beat Obama out but there is big money behind Obama. http://goodtimepolitics.com/2008/05/17/obama-should-kiss-edwards-on-the-lips/

  • scotchcart // May 18, 2008 at 1:22 pm

    So you would vote for McCain on the grounds that he is a feminist?

  • donnadarko // May 18, 2008 at 5:12 pm

    No, I don’t advocate voting for McCain at all but writing in Hillary, the real Democrat. If you can’t do that, vote for Cynthia McKinney.

  • yaktivist // May 18, 2008 at 11:34 pm

    Voting for McKinney would also give Clinton supporters a defence against charges of racism since McKinney is also a Black American. McKinney also spent more time in Congress than Obama, so votes for her would be further protests against the media and party spurning a better qualified woman for the sake of a less qualified man.

    McKinney’s site is at http://www.RunCynthiaRun.org . I don’t expect to vote for her, but I don’t like the idea of people not voting out of protest because it gives no indication of what a voter is protesting. Voting for McKinney (or conservatives voting for Bob Barr ) at least gives some indication of what it is a voter is protesting.

  • robin33048 // May 19, 2008 at 9:14 am

    I will never vote for B. Obama! NEVER! He is a frightening person with too many ties to the far left.

    What I don’t understand though, and I’ve not heard it talked about, is why will the votes of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands count and not Florida and Michigan I think all 50, not 57 ( as Obama put it ), states should rally to have the votes counted for all of our states. And last I looked, Puerto Rico and Virgin Islands were NOT states.

    I guess I’m just one of those dumb old Hillbillies who is left clinging to my guns and my faith. God Bless America and we’d better wake up!

    Robin Hale
    Crab Orchard, WV

  • goodtimepolitics // May 19, 2008 at 11:46 am

    If you don’t vote at all people you will in fact be voting for Obama! Cause a Hillary write in will not win the election for her. So what you’re saying is that you will vote for Obama but under protest!
    I will never vote for Obama and so am force to vote for McCain as a swing vote cause I’m a democrat at heart! I’m just an ole tarheel in North Carolina so what do I know! :)

  • donnadarko // May 19, 2008 at 12:05 pm

    Don’t vote for McCain. Vote for McKinney or write-in Hillary if you can.

  • Obama is Bush Redux : NO QUARTER // May 19, 2008 at 7:03 pm

    [...] supporters are Republicans, as if recoiling from disenfranchisement, racial politics, and blatant sexism makes one a Republican. We believe, in fact, that it is the Obama supporters who most closely [...]

  • debbie4044 // May 20, 2008 at 3:46 pm

    I am a Hillary supporter who will NEVER, NEVER vote for Obama. A TRUE Hillary supporter WILL NOT vote for Obama!! DO NOT write in Hillary’s name and do not stay home and not vote–that will be a definate vote for Obama.
    The only way to continue to be a supporter of Hillary Clinton and show the Democratic Party— is to vote for McCain!!! if Hillary Clinton is not the Democratic nominee!

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