DUNCANSVILLE, Pa., June 9, 2008
Clinton Supporters Lament Campaign Exit
Washington Post: One Pennsylvania Family Goes Through Stages Of Grief, Praise Her Impact
-
Play CBS Video
Video
Women Inspired By Clinton
Although Hillary Clinton has ended her bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, many women and young girls throughout the nation have been inspired by her campaign. Nancy Cordes reports.
-
Video
Clinton Campaign Ends
Hillary Clinton formally announced that she has suspended her campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination and endorsed candidate and formal rival Barack Obama. Jim Axelrod reports.
-
Video
Will Clinton Help Obama?
Howard Wolfson, Hillary Clinton's Communications Director, and Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) discuss the former Democratic presidential candidate's next potential steps in her support for Barack Obama.
-
-
Photo
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., pauses as she is applauded at the National Building Museum in Washington, Saturday, June 7, 2008, where she suspended her campaign for president. (AP Photo/Ron Edmonds)
-
Photo
Bonnie Bon Jiorno, right, hugs a fellow supporter at the conclusion Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., address at the National Building Museum in Washington, Saturday, June 7, 2008, where she suspended her campaign for president. (AP Photo/J. David Ake)
-
Photo
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., greets supporters at the National Building Museum in Washington, Saturday, June 7, 2008, as she suspends her campaign for president. (AP Photo/Ron Edmonds)
-
Photo
-
Timeline
Democratic Campaign Trail
Notable events in the race for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination.
-
Photo Essay
Hillary Clinton
A look at a life and career full of firsts.
From Our Partner:
Five family members gathered last Thursday afternoon in their living room, shades drawn, to remember. They sat in big, cushioned chairs and shared stories to fight their sadness. There was the time Hillary asked them for money, and they cobbled together about $50 even though they couldn't spare it. Or the time Hillary encouraged them to walk door to-door around the neighborhood, and they overcame shyness and spent the afternoon laughing with new friends.
"She touched a lot of people," said Theresa Gropelli, 43, who spoke in the room with her husband, her parents and her sister. "I only wish she had stayed around longer."
Their wake-like ceremony for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign involved all the usual stages of grief, from denial to depression and from anger to acceptance. Like thousands of other Clinton supporters across the country last week, they mourned the political passing of a woman who so inspired them that she felt less like a distant politician than a dear friend.
As always at wakes, the talk turned quickly to memories. Never before politically active, Gropelli and her sister, Kathy Bem, knocked on doors, made phone calls and sent donations during Clinton's campaign. They stayed up late to monitor primary results. They spent an afternoon mingling with supporters at a local campaign rally. Like many other women, they engaged in politics more than they ever imagined possible.
"I never could have done this for any other candidate," said Bem, 44. "Hillary was so prepared to be president. She knew everything, she had the experience, and she was just such a fighter. It became a personal attachment for me. For the first time, it was like we were rooting for one of us."
Whom voters such as Bem root for now will help determine the next president. By the end of the prolonged and sometimes divisive Democratic primaries, more than a quarter of Clinton voters said they would vote for Republican John McCain against Democrat Barack Obama, according to a poll from the Pew Research Center conducted just before the final votes were cast.
McCain's campaign said last week that it will target Clinton backers, thinking they have more in common with him than with Obama.
Gropelli and Bem won't be among them. They listened to Clinton's withdrawal speech Saturday, and her message confirmed the sisters' intuitions. They will vote for Obama, although they're not sure about campaigning for him. Their family members will vote for Obama, too.
"Hillary made it real clear what we have to do as Democrats," Bem said. "She came across really strong on that, and I trust her. We have to move from one candidate to the other."
On the day Clinton announced her candidacy in January 2007, Gropelli vowed to unite her family behind the senator from New York. A nursing professor at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Gropelli already had heard her students gossiping excitedly about Obama. "I knew there was no time to waste," she said. "So I started lobbying all of my relatives."
Her family consisted mainly of Democrats, but more so in theory than in practice. The Bems and Gropellis followed politics sometimes, and they usually voted. But three generations had settled, and stayed, in the hills of Pennsylvania for the peace and quiet, for the distance from the problems faced by Washington politicians.
Only, as Clinton launched her campaign early last year, the Gropelli family had more to complain about than ever before.
The cost of gas had rendered Theresa Gropelli's one-hour drive to work nearly unaffordable. Husband Dave Gropelli struggled to secure contracts as a drywaller because of the housing slump. Her 70-year-old mother and father, Helen and Donald Bem, had doubled the size of their food garden -- "from a hobby to a necessity," Donald liked to say -- because of escalating grocery prices. Drug violence had become so endemic in Kathy Bem's downtown Altoona neighborhood that she rarely left the house after dark.
One by one, as the campaign season intensified, they turned to Clinton.
"It's already overdue for a woman to get the job, because we need someone with a new perspective," Helen Bem said.
"She knew her stuff, so I never doubted she could do it," Donald Bem said.
"She was so confident, it made you feel like nothing could go wrong under her watch," Kathy Bem said.
The more Kathy followed the campaign, the more attached she felt. Sometimes, while watching clips on the evening news or listening to Clinton give an interview, she recognized pieces of herself in the candidate -- a strong, self-assured woman determined to compete in a realm traditionally reserved for men.
A while back, Kathy had accepted a job as a bread deliverer. The only woman among dozens of men who held the job in the Altoona region, she woke up six days a week at 3 a.m., loaded her truck with heavy trays and spent her morning wheeling bread carts around Altoona. Co-workers bet she wouldn't last seven months.
"They told me," she said, "that a woman would never make it in this kind of demanding, physical work."
Two years later, she's still delivering. Earlier this year, she picked up a second job to pay off some debt. After she spends eight hours lugging bread trays, she takes a two-hour nap before supervising the day-care center at a fancy health club. It was there, watching during her breaks on a television installed in the women's bathroom, that Kathy regularly tracked news from Clinton's campaign.
"I can't even explain it," Kathy said. "But it's like we were going through it together, and I really had a lot at stake."
As she remembered the connection in her sister's living room, Kathy shook her head.
"It's so sad," she said. "I still can't figure out exactly what went wrong."
As the impromptu wake progressed Thursday, all five family members marveled at how quickly Clinton's campaign had derailed: One month a euphoric high after a 10-point win in the Pennsylvania primary, the next a devastating blow after a bad loss in North Carolina and a narrow win in Indiana.
Surrounded by vestiges of Clinton's campaign -- yard signs and old magazines that they would one day throw out -- the two sisters assigned blame for her derailment. Young people had flocked to Obama. Commentators had demeaned Clinton's opinions and appearance because of her gender. Obama had run an "almost perfect" campaign.
Kathy still hopes Clinton might make a political comeback -- maybe for the vice presidency, or another run in four or eight years.
"I'm not ready to say it's over forever," she said.
"I know. It's too depressing," Theresa said. "The thing that scares me is that I'm not sure there's going to be another woman anytime soon. It could be 30 years, 50 years -- maybe not even in my lifetime. That's a problem. That's why we're going to be thinking about Hillary for a long time."
By Eli Saslow
© 2006-2008 The Washington Post Company
|
|
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- next
See all 204 CommentsHow many suicide Muslim bombers have there been in the last 10 years?
Please answer, Melchg.
Posted by ddhinnyc at 09:29 AM : Jun 09, 2008
------------
How many Muslim Women''s Health Clinic Bombers have there been in the last 10 years?
-------
Eric Rudolph, Jim Jones, David Koresh, .......
When the DNC and Obama made back room deals to APPOINT Obama and then THREATENED Hillary Clinton''s career...that released us from any obligation whatsoever to the DNC...they look worse than the Chicago mafia!
We''ll take our vote and give it to the man that was at least chosen by the people! And stop this bull spit of the oligarchy deciding who vote for!
NO OBAMA ''08
June 29, 1994: Dr. John Britton and James Barrett, a clinic escort, were both shot to death outside of another facility in Pensacola. Rev. Paul Jennings Hill was charged with the killings, received a death sentence, and was executed September 3, 2003.
December 30, 1994: Two receptionists, Shannon Lowney and Lee Ann Nichols, were killed in two clinic attacks in Brookline, Massachusetts. John Salvi, who prior to his arrest was distributing pamphlets from Human Life International,[6] was arrested and confessed to the killings. He committed suicide in prison and guards found his body under his bed with a plastic garbage bag tied around his head. Salvi had also confessed to a non-lethal attack in Norfolk, Virginia days before the Brookline killings.
January 29, 1998: Robert Sanderson, an off-duty police officer who worked as a security guard at an abortion clinic in Birmingham, Alabama, was killed when his workplace was bombed. Eric Robert Rudolph, who was also responsible for the 1996 Centennial Olympic Park bombing, was charged with the crime and received two life sentences as a result.
May 28, 2000: An arson at a clinic in Concord, New Hampshire on resulted in damage estimated at US$20,000.
October 1, 2000: A Catholic priest drove his car into the Northern Illinois Health Clinic after learning that the FDA had approved the drug RU-486. He pulled out an ax before being shot at by a security guard.
June 11, 2001: A bombing at a clinic in Tacoma, Washington on destroyed a wall, resulting in US$6000 in damages
December 12, 2005: Patricia Hughes and Jeremy Dunahoe threw a Molotov cocktail at a clinic in Shreveport, Louisiana. The device missed the building and no damage was caused. In August 2006, Hughes was sentenced to six years in prison, and Dunahoe to one year.
September 13, 2006 David McMenemy of Rochester Hills, Michigan crashed his car into the Edgerton Women''s Care Center in Davenport, Iowa. He then doused the lobby in gasoline and then started a fire. McMenemy committed these acts in the belief that the center was performing abortions, however Edgerton is not an abortion clinc.[14]
April 25, 2007: A package left at a women''s health clinic in Austin, Texas contained an explosive device capable of inflicting serious injury or death. A bomb squad detonated the device.[15]
May 9, 2007: An unidentified person deliberately set fire to a Planned Parenthood clinic in Virginia Beach, Virginia.[16]
December 6, 2007: Two unidentified persons set fire to a Planned Parenthood clinic in Albuquerque, New Mexico.[17]
1992-1995 Bosnia - The genocide of over 300,000 Muslims and systematic rape of over 100,000 Muslim women by Christian Serbs.
ddhineyboy, can you read? What ahoot you freakvanny bumpkins are.
She''s still a fighter, and a good thing, too. We''ll need her.
What. A. Self-righteous. Hoot. You. Are.
---------
Must be the Freakvanny Bumpkin Hoot part of Manhattan. HAHAHAHA!!!!
Posted by TiredofObama at 09:40 AM : Jun 09, 2008
+ re
I was just flabbergasted at the tactics used by the Dnc, to shelve Hillary and get the Obama vote. Weather you are for or against Obama the Dnc showed exactly what they are, to say we will break for lunch and be back at 2:15 and don''t get back till 6:00 and to vote the way they did I knew the back room politics were fully engaged once more. Hillary won the primary she received more votes than Obama , It was the stupid super delegates that lost it for her. We need a third party. It reminded me of the supreme court, how they made George W. Bush a illegal president.
Posted by ddhinnyc at 09:52 AM : Jun 09, 2008
----------
Dude, you lost. I know Grandpa McDepends is your last, desperate hope for creating the United States of Jesusland but it won''t happen now. Its over.
Go wait for the Rapture.
-----------
Don''t you have a "Left Behind" book to re-read?
were selling. Don''t try to put everyone in a simplistic box.
When the NABOBS in the Democrat Party decided to toss Senator Clinton out like yesterday''s trash, they lost me as a loyal voter. I will now at least look at what the Republicans, and Libertarians have to offer me as a citizen; maybe they will value my vote.
Posted by ddhinnyc at 09:56 AM : Jun 09, 2008
---------------
I know, you really wanted Jesus John Hagee as a Candidate but the Dream is over. No United States of Jesusland for you now buddy.
Posted by walker1209 at 09:56 AM : Jun 09, 200
I know how you feel they the DNC and the super delegates showed there true colors and did exactly what you said, but before I would give a third term to George Bush I will just stay home so here are two things that have hurt over 18million people in this country and until we get rid of Pelosi and Reid there is only a resemblance there there once was a democratic party. To all super delegates that did this and believed the media, shame on you, you once was the party of fairness what do you call yourself now. I am so glad I am an independent,but I once was a democrat.
BAPTISTS TORTURED BY HAMMAS - CARTER- WHO TAKES MONEY FROM OIL RICH ARABS, IGNORES.
"The Islamic Outreach" (NICE NAME) head- Sheik Abu Saquer on 8 26 07 proclaimed that there was no need to have Christians in GAZA. There were only about 3,000 living there before Israel left.
Now that HAMAS is in control, what has happened to them ?
All Christian Women must wear Muslim dress in public. No Church Services allowed. The YMCAS were burned down, and he directors killed. Beatings and rapes, as expected. for example:
Mr. Rami Ayyad one local leader of the Christians, and Christian book store owner - only one, brave soul, was tortured and murdered by HAMAS police, 10 11 07. His family given refuge in Israel, his book store destroyed. A blazing book burning of Christian Books followed - sounds like NAZIS ?) By the way - to CARTER- Ayyad was a practicing BAPTIST ! Will you ask about what happened to your fellow BAPTIST ? and why ? be strong Pres. Carter. coward.
So said Islamic Outreach . " All Christians engaging in missionary activity in GAZA will be dealt with HARSHLY."
CARTER takes millions of dollars each year from rich ARAB OIL, just to be a traitor to his own people. Why ??
THIS HAS TO BE AN ISSUE: NAMING THE ENEMY, and it is not us.
Their CANDIDATE HILLARY in her speech Saturday pretty much said that there is no room in our society for bigotry so if you were going to vote for me GET OVER IT (your racism) ...and vote for Obama. She wants what is best for us and our country and she knows its a Democratic President. I know she will play an important role in his presidency and I know she will be back to run again and when she does, I will support her then as I have supported Obama in this election. GROW UP YOU CLINTON SUPPORTERS and follow your candidate. How much did you really believe in her..if you can''t do what she believes is best for America and will do herself?
Soon to be ex-Democrat
R Wiley
Female, Age 46
Posted by walker1209 at 09:56 AM : Jun 09, 200
I know how you feel they the DNC and the super delegates showed there true colors and did exactly what you said, but before I would give a third term to George Bush I will just stay home so here are two things that have hurt over 18million people in this country and until we get rid of Pelosi and Reid there is only a resemblance there there once was a democratic party. To all super delegates that did this and believed the media, shame on you, you once was the party of fairness what do you call yourself now. I am so glad I am an independent,but I once was a democrat.
Posted by starleo14672 at 10:06 AM : Jun 09, 2008
-------------------------------------------------
No wonder why the Democrats couldn''t win the last two elections. People like yourselves cry like babies when you don''t get your way. It''s amusing to me.
Posted by kcmary1
You go! Way to bully!!! Maybe it''s not so much they are immature as they want to make a statement about how candidates are treated by the media and other party members...or to put it another way...say it with your vote. They may just think it''s important enough to let the powers that think they control know exactly where the real power rests...just another perspective...please don''t shoot the messenger.
Posted by walker1209 at 09:56 AM : Jun 09, 2008
It''s time to realize that Hillary lost because she got bad advice and ran a poor campaign. When your campaign manager puts together a plan thinking thew primaries were winner take all that''s a better big mistake - both by him and the fact that Hillary went along with it. She believed in the overwhelming numbers tha polls had her winning by and she underestimated the appeal of Obama and that''s what did her in. No conspiracy, no piracy, no inside work by the DNC - it was Hillary and her main campaign advisors that found a way to lose a sure thing.
Posted by kcmary1
You go! Way to bully!!! Maybe it''s not so much they are immature as they want to make a statement about how candidates are treated by the media and other party members...or to put it another way...say it with your vote. They may just think it''s important enough to let the powers that think they control know exactly where the real power rests...just another perspective...please don''t shoot the messenger.
Posted by cryhavoc2 at 10:47 AM : Jun 09, 2008
This is simply a legal term. If she ended her campaign it is illegal to raise any more fund to pay off the debt. By "suspending" her campaign she can raise money, probably most notably from the Obama campaign, to pay off the debt. No intrigue, just a technicality - Hillary is done!
The real titles should be "BarracKKK Hussein faces the challenge of REVERSE RACISM" because during his campaign he proved that blacks can be just as racist as their white counterpart (rev. wright, FarraKKKan, etc.) Hillary Rodham should take her 18 million supporters and run as an independent.
GOD BLESS AMERICA, not GOD D@! AMERIkkkA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted by craigh9 at 11:29 AM : Jun 09, 2008
Craig, good post, and I truly hope that is all she has up her sleeve; with her, anything is possible and she will still do anything she needs to do to gain the nomination. I just plain don''t trust her.
We''''ll take our vote and give it to the man that was at least chosen by the people! And stop this bull spit of the oligarchy deciding who vote for!
NO OBAMA ''''08
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted by TiredofObama at 09:40 AM : Jun 09, 2008
Rowdy, you can call a pile of S.H.I.T. a rose, but it still stinks. Change you name as often as you want, but your line of krap still identifies you.
-------------------
Here''s why...he is inexperienced, his wife is race-obsessed, his associates are crooks and racists, his mother, while white from Kansas, was an extreme radical who refused to marry a white man... he knows nothing about foreign policy or economics..he was raised in the Muslim faith by his stepfather...the Middle East is hoping he gets elected. I don''t care what color he is.
posted by kenbomc
-------------------
Apparently you care..except where grammar is concerned.
I don''t understand. Are you saying that just because Hillary says she is more experienced, that Obama should drop out.
And really just a touch of honesty, Rowdy. Obama won fair and square. For some reason Hillary believed that the primary states were winner take all like the republicans. You know it was the Clinton who helped make up those rules.
The reason that I did not vote for Hillary was her hawkish war vote - trying to look strong but instead helped create the disaster that was Iraq. And it was not just her vote, but the speeches on the Senate floor she made in support.
So please, enough with the Obama stold the vote stuff. We all know that is not true. And negative, Hillary''s adds are still hurting Obama. What did Obama say about Hillary that hurt her? Or do you want to blame Bill Clinton''s "fair-tale" and Jesse Jackson remarks from SC on Obama?
Simple as that. It''s always someone else''s fault for our failing and loses never our own.
Blame the media, the government, racism, etc.
Accept responsibility, learn from it, grow as a person and move on.
Vote for WHO a candidate is and not WHAT they are.
Posted by cathymiller4 at 11:36 AM : Jun 09, 2008
_______________________
Mind stating just was experience Hillary has?
Posted by horse3farm at 12:20 PM : Jun 09, 2008
These are the same people that make fun of someone who stutters. The MESSAGE is the object of the post not punctuation or spelling.
Posted by horse3farm at 12:18 PM : Jun 09, 2008
_______________________
Mind telling me what experience Hillary has?
Another thing I did not like about the 3:00am phone call was that it was just a wrong type of thinking. If the phone rings, it is the chief of staff tell you that he is convening members of the national security council for a situation. Does Hillary really think she is going to be asked to make a nuclear decision at 3:00 while you''re still half alseep? Please!
Posted by cathymiller4 at 11:36 AM : Jun 09, 2008
_______________________
So much for experience!
He had an array of experiences: Minister to Russia, Minister to Great Britain, ten years in the Senate, elected five times to the House of Representatives, Secretary of State for five years. While he was in office the nation increased in size by 33%. Yet, when he was elected as president in 1856, James Buchanan soon acquired the reputation as the worst president in the history of the country. The man who followed him in office only had two terms in the Illinois State Legislature, but Abraham Lincoln had no problem being elected to the presidency.
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- next
See all 204 Comments