News from Reuters
(2008-06-12)
IOWA CITY, IO
(kuni) -
Barack Obama's vice presidential choice could attract or push away female voters who supported Hillary Clinton, said political commentators Arnie Arnesen and Steffen Schmidt, speaking on Iowa Public Radio's program "Talk@12" on Wednesday.According to Schmidt, who is a political science professor at Iowa State University, Clinton stoked feminist sentiments in some of her supporters when she suspended her campaign last week.
"The speech was a statement to women of all ages, across the fifty states, saying that this is about a new day, a new door. She celebrated how close she came [to the nomination]," Schmidt said.
Senator Obama must now deal with the fervor of Clinton's strongest female supporters, who supported her because she is a woman, Schmidt said.
"If Obama picks another woman and not Hillary, a lot of people think Hillary Clinton supporters are going to walk away. If he doesn't pick a woman, there still isn't a woman there. It's a really complicated post-primary issue," Schmidt said.
Arnesen, a radio and television host, was critical of Clinton's campaign suspension speech, which Arnesen said focused too much on Clinton's strengths as a candidate and not enough on passing the reins to Obama.
"There is no way HIllary Clinton lost because she's a woman. There are many reasons she may have lost, including management at the top, the message, the marriage. But the fact that she's female is an excuse [for losing], and not reality," Arnesen stated. © Copyright 2012, kuni
