The ‘Spite’ Vote

Last week, Clinton finally conceded the Democratic nomination to Obama after a grueling primary season. She proved to be a tenacious and somewhat ironic ‘comeback’ candidate who proved pundits and others wrong with her continued support and wins in the many latter primary states. But the math finally became obvious and the Clinton spin team ran out of gas. She unequivocally backed Obama in her concession speech on Saturday; a speech which left critics wondering, had the same content and tone been used throughout the primary season, she might have built her base with more support to clinch the nomination.

Her speech was meant to unify the badly bruised and seemingly divided Democratic party. Some supporters immediately backed Obama, others did so reluctantly. But a few others decided that instead of not voting at all, they would back John McCain. The same McCain that promotes policies counter to those of Clinton (and Obama, since they nearly have the same policies sans healthcare). The same McCain who, at least in this Senate, has one of the most conservative voting records. To me that makes absolute zero sense. That tells me that those ardent Clinton supporters were not really supporting her for her policies. It’s fine that they won’t vote for Obama but when you go a complete 180 and support someone who is the complete opposite, that is just ludicrous.

The Co-Chairs of University of Iowa Students for Hillary also released a memo today indicating that they would vote for McCain. They advocated the rest of the group’s members to do the same:

We do not agree with him [McCain] on everything, and this is why we urge you to strongly support Democrats up for re-election to congress. He served our country, he is right on immigration, right on global warming, and he voted against the Federal Marriage Amendment, which would have banned Marriage Equality.

I guess since they agree on these three issues, that makes him a good alternative to Hillary. Interesting deduction, people.