Clinton's Loyalists Say They're Also in the Race `to the End' - Yahoo! News

Clinton's Loyalists Say They're Also in the Race `to the End' - Yahoo! News: "Clinton's Loyalists Say They're Also in the Race `to the End'" Indira A.R. Lakshmanan Sat May 24, 12:01 AM ET May 24 (Bloomberg) -- Hillary Clinton is under increasing pressure to drop out of a Democratic nomination race that she has practically no chance of winning so Barack Obama can start the general-election campaign. Don't tell that to diehard loyalists like Lindsay Tanner. ``If she's in it, I'm in it,'' said Tanner, 32, an accountant from Birmingham, Alabama, who has taken weeks of vacation and paid her own way to Texas, Pennsylvania, Indiana and Kentucky to wave signs, canvass neighborhoods and shout herself hoarse. Many of Clinton's true believers haven't accepted her loss and, more troubling for Obama, a significant number say they would rather vote Republican or stay home than support him -- unless the 60-year-old New York senator is also on the ticket. There were rumors yesterday that Obama and Clinton were discussing a deal to make her his running mate, and that former President Bill Clinton was pushing it. Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs said the reports were ``completely untrue,'' and Clinton spokesman Mo Elleithee called them ``absurd.'' Some Clinton supporters, like Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell and New York Senator Charles Schumer, have said an Obama- Clinton ticket is the Democrats' best hope in the fall. Chances for that may have been diminished yesterday by Clinton's comments about why she was staying in the race. She reminded reporters in South Dakota that earlier campaigns have run late and 1968 Democratic candidate Robert Kennedy was assassinated in June. She subsequently apologized. Not `Right Fit' Obama supporters such as Senator Edward Kennedy have dismissed the idea of a joint ticket. ``My guess is he's going to want to have people with him that will complement what he wants to do,'' Connecticut Senator Christopher Dodd said. A joint ticket ``may not be the right fit.'' That's not going to please Clinton supporters, many of whom say sexism and biased media coverage have made for an unfair fight. They're furious that her wins in Florida and Michigan were invalidated because the states broke Democratic Party rules. ``The media's been trying to manipulate us from the beginning,'' said Miriam Picconi, 64, a church worker in Frankfort, Kentucky, who cheered Clinton on in a college gym weeks after delegate-counters said the race was over. She even donated $150 from her fixed income. Paula Steinher, a 58-year-old housewife from Anderson, Ohio, has worked phone banks in three states. ``I say, `Go to the end.' They're just trying to scare her off,'' Steinher said of pundits and politicians aligned with Obama, 46, an Illinois senator. `A Ploy' ``Bill Clinton says it's a ploy to keep us at home,'' agreed Larry Jewell, 57, a store clerk from Bowling Green, Kentucky, who brought his two sons to see Hillary Clinton. Jewell, who's black, said he's disappointed at other African-Americans for backing Obama over a female candidate he considers more experienced. Last week, a group of women who have contributed to Clinton the maximum amount of money allowed formed WomenCount, an independent political action committee. Within days, they raised $300,000 for full-page ads in USA Today, the New York Times and regional newspapers. Headlined ``Not So Fast,'' the ad urges the party ``to hear our voices and count all of our votes.'' In Miami, where Clinton pressed the case this week for counting her victories in Florida and Michigan, Margaret Black, 47, said she still prefers Clinton as ``the person who can hit the ground running.'' Won't Back Obama Whether it's anger at Obama's comments about ``bitter'' small-town Americans or his relationship with a pastor who condemned the U.S., some Clinton loyalists say they won't vote for him in November. ``I'm in denial now, I don't want to think about her not winning,'' said Tanner, who said this is the first time she put her heart, soul and wallet into politics. ``I may write-in her name'' in November, she said. Tanner's friend, Julie Mann, 29, a marketing executive who knows Clinton's wardrobe so well that she could predict which color jacket she'd be wearing at a recent rally, shook her head vehemently when asked if she could support Obama. ``The more people learn about Obama, the less happy they are,'' said Mann, who volunteered for Clinton in six states. Carol Palmore, 59, former Kentucky labor secretary, said she'll support Obama in the fall, overcoming disappointment she and many other women feel. ``Never in our lifetime will we have another chance to have a woman president,'' she said. Hillary as VP? Rodney Mattingly, 56, a public health official from Lebanon, Kentucky, echoed the sentiments of many Clintonites in offering a possible solution: ``If she were the VP, we'd vote for Obama.'' Some Democrats say that would be a bad trade-off for Obama. Dan Gerstein, a Democratic strategist and Obama supporter, said Clinton ``turns off a decent chunk'' of voters, especially independents, so choosing her as vice president would be inconsistent with Obama's central theme: ``He has spent the last several months saying that she is what's wrong with Washington.'' Having the first African-American run with a woman may also offer ``too much change,'' he said. ``That may be injecting too much risk in the calculus.'' To contact the reporter on this story: Indira Lakshmanan in Washington at ilakshmanan@bloomberg.net .