McCain campaign tries to woo Clinton supporters
Even as Hillary Clinton prepares to endorse Barack Obama on Saturday, the Republican National Committee is throwing open its doors to her supporters.
The RNC has already begun to use Clinton’s words along with those of her high ranking Democratic colleagues against Barack Obama, and now they are hoping to siphon off her most ardent backers with the newly-registered internet domain ClintonsforMcCain.com.
Though the web site is not yet fully active, the domain name was reportedly registered by the RNC back in May as it became clear after the Democratic primary in North Carolina that it would be next to impossible for Senator Hillary Clinton to overtake Barack Obama in the pledged delegate count.
According to various published reports, as news of Clinton’s impending exit from the race has spread, her supporters have been responding angrily, barraging both HillaryClinton.com and John McCain’s web site with comments indicating that they will not vote for Barack Obama or that they will support his presumed Republican rival instead.
One group of Clinton supporters has gone so far as to launch a lobbying group to support Republican John McCain. Calling itself The National Organisation of Hillary Clinton Supporters for John McCain, the group’s mission is “to raise money” to “promote John McCain.”
To this end, Hillary Clinton Supporters for John McCain say, “We will set up a ‘527’ to raise money, run TV and radio ads against Obama. The Democratic Party has left us out in the cold, so we are going to build a fire that they cannot put out.”
Established only last Saturday, the group claimed over 7,000 members at press time.
“We’re going to run campaign ads to defeat Obama,” says Hillary Clinton Supporters for John McCain founder Ed Hale, a 63-year-old rancher and a Clinton supporter from Wellington, Texas.
“We have doctors, lawyers, CPAs, the blue bloods, and then we have rednecks like me. It’s a very diversified organisation.”
“They have treated Hillary Clinton worst [sic] than I would treat a mad dog,” Hale continues in a message on his website.
“This site is up to get like minded people to join so if they do go ahead and nominate Obama, we will be ready to make sure that he never goes to the White House. If Hillary gets the nomination, then I will be leading the charge for her.”
According to an article in Wired.com, Hale, a Vietnam veteran and a long-time Democrat, says that many of the group’s supporters are Reagan Democrats, and their primary concern is foreign policy and defence.
In the same article it was noted that a call to the Texas Democratic Party confirmed that Hale was supposed to have been a delegate to the state convention this week.
For her part, Hillary Clinton has consistently reminded her supporters throughout the campaign that the differences between she and Barack Obama pale in contrast to the differences between the both of them and Senator John McCain. Still, some supporters don’t appear to be listening.
In a show of Democratic unity today, the New York congressional delegation this afternoon came out en masse to declare Obama’s nomination and praise Hillary Clinton’s planned endorsement of Obama on Saturday.
“We come here collectively to endorse the decision by our fearless leader,” Representative Charlie Rangel told reporters. “We’re so proud of her.”
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