I thought it was an anomaly.
It was a lovely evening about a month ago. We were celebrating our friend Cindy’s birthday. She’d just had cataract surgery and looked more like Popeye than our friend Cindy (I suggested she order the spinach) and the dozen or so women assembled raised a glass to Cindy and her family. They’d had a tough year and prevailed.
Then the conversation turned to politics. It was a Hillary crowd. It was also a gay crowd. Having voted for Barack, Eileen and I were in the minority. The conversation was lively and not at all argumentative. We all seemed to agree that the core objective was to make sure a Democrat was inaugurated in January 2009.
And then our friend Amy spoke.
I love Amy. Smart, funny, generous, and yes, opinionated. If Hillary doesn’t get the nomination, I’m voting for McCain, she said. I almost fell off my chair. She was not kidding and she was adamant. She said Obama was a lightweight and the United States simply can’t afford that.
I tried to forget that part of the evening because I really couldn’t grapple with the implications of that comment.
Until yesterday’s polling information hit. And there it was. Now Amy has a lot of company.
The next steps are clear. We Democrats better start turning our attention to educating our base about why John McCain should not be the next President of the United States. Even while the Obama / Clinton battle rages on. Maybe this is a project that Howard Dean and the DNC can take on. The DNC can’t seem to figure a way out of the nominations mess so maybe it can be more productive educating the electorate about the risk of McCain.
I believe Obama will get the nomination. I believe that unless we do something – and fast – my friend Amy is going to vote for McCain. I’d like to be able to say that I made my best effort to persuade her to do otherwise.
I’m going to ask Amy if she minds if I post her email address. Seriously, I am. In the meantime, leave your comments here for Amy and I’ll make sure she gets them. And remember: each of us has an Amy. Seek them out and start making the case.
NOTE: I am now a contributing blogger at MOMOCRATS, a group of moms who have blogs of their own who come together to blog as moms and as Democrats. Thus the name. I will be writing new material for that blog and cross posting as well. So do check back and forth. And spend some time at Momocrats if you can. Smart women, powerful voices. Have a look - click here.
- Related Posts:
- You Can't Fight For What You Don't Know You Don't Have.
- What exactly do we mean by "experience?"
- I am a flaming liberal swing voter.
- Follow the undecided voter (me) at visiblevote08.logoonline.com
- Amy speaks for herself.
- Senator Larry Craig: Guilty of what?
- Why isn't Mary Cheney serving our country?
- A vote is not just a vote
- What do Eliot Spitzer and Isaiah Washington have in common?
- Is Barack the best candidate to advocate for African Americans?
- Anyone here from Temple Ner Tamid?
- The Gun Fight at the Irma Hotel
- Buffalo Bill Cody and Scout
- This is America.
- Scout on Vacation.
- Such a punim on this cowboy.
- Everything is so beautiful here.
- Montana does not run on Dunkin'
- Charlotte VonHoffman would love it here.
- The View From the Front Door
- There is no way I am five years old in that picture.
- My New York Times 2 Piece Bathing Suit
- My dad and the New York Times.
- Out of the Mouths of "Activist" Judges.
- The "strange" New York Times Magazine cover story
- Things my mom and the Pope have in common.
- The whole flag thing got me thinking
- My op ed in this morning's Newark Star Ledger
- $3 Billion Dollars a Week.
- Barack, Tell Me About Your Peeps.
- TV's Political Pundits are even more diverse than the NY Times tells you.
- I love my friend Amy. Amy?
- Jamie Lee Curtis beat me to the punch
- The eagle eye of my brother Steven.
- How could you not like THE BIG GIVE? Here's how.
- Our tribe has spoken.
- Where is Monty Hall when you need him?
- Our 13 year olds weigh in on John Edwards.
- Thanks, Mom.
- American Primary Idol
- The Biggest Loser in my house.
- The hams were Eileen's idea.
- Being gay: my kryptonite or my superpower?
- The first female singing member of the New York City Gay Men's Chorus
- Primary custody
- Dumbledore? I was rooting for Hermione.
- Shopping at Williams Sonoma - Oh Deer.
- A Homework Assignment
- That Disney movie about the lions
- 5-10 really good moments before you die.
- Meeting your new roommate: A freshman's orientation
- Mommies Dearest
- Signs of age.
- What else can George Hotz do?
- A man named Joybubbles died today.
- T minus 14 days until our daughter leaves for college.
- We are all Democratic hopefuls
- I drive Eileen to the train station in an SUV
- Having a fit.
- An exemplary samaritan
- The special gay decoder glasses
- Our friend Sally
- Connecting the front page to the backyard
- Hats.
- Would you call yourself a "homemaker?"
- The choir doesn't have the sheet music.
- I'm in the wrong binder again.
- The Golden Gate Bridge brought to you by...
- Value families.
- A visit to Madame Tussaud's wax museum.
- Shacking up.
- Reader comments on my most recent post.
March 28th, 2008 at 12:16 am
Count me among those who will vote for McCain if Obama is the nominee. McCain has actually practiced the bipartisanship that Obama only talks about, and McCain has actually sacrificed something for this country, as opposed to Obama, whose only accomplishments seems to be skillfully attaching his name to legislation that he hasn’t done an ounce of work on. And don’t bring up McCain’s “100 years” in Iraq comment, because Obama’s military adviser said that exact same thing.
Many, many Clinton voters have been saying all along that they value experience. Seeing as how Obama has none, McCain is the natural second choice. Add to this Obama’s creepy cultlike following–which is a complete turn off to wide swaths of electorate–his utter condescension to Hillary (”You’re likable enough”), his distortion of Bill Clinton’s presidency, Obama supporters’ hostility to Clinton supporters, and you have a recipe for McCain drawing large numbers of Clinton voters. So, go ahead, post Amy’s e-mail address. I’m sure she’ll get as many people congratulating her for her decision, because, unlike you, she’s actually thought about what’s best for this country.
March 28th, 2008 at 5:25 pm
I agree with Amy and Max. I may not vote for McCain, but your “precious” will NEVER get my vote! How offensive, btw, for you to post or even want to post the email address of a FRIEND just because you disagree with her. Some friend you are, Joan. Throw her under the bus along with your grandmother.
March 28th, 2008 at 10:47 pm
BTW, we all have a Joan, too. A traitor to feminism. A traitor to the Democratic party, where half the democratic electorate (Joan and her family included), now choose to disenfranchise millions of voters in order to actually steal the election. So George Bush of you!
Do the GLTB voices in Florida & Michigan not count, either? Perhaps if they donated millions of dollars to JoanGarry.com it would have influenced your vote otherwise.
Or perhaps if stars, like Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, or those typically partisan democrats like John Kerry, Ted Kennedy, and that “oh, if she said I should vote for him,” (per Eileen), Caroline Kennedy, “then I have to” had gone the other way, would you all still be on the same bandwagon?
April 2nd, 2008 at 8:56 am
[…] haven’t heard from my friend Amy since I wrote about a dinner conversation in which she said she would vote for McCain instead of Obama if Obama is the Democratic pick.