Clinton’s biggest fans prepare to choose ‘between 2 evils’

It was just five months ago that graduate student Alicia Keebaugh was a raving Hillary Clinton supporter.

She spent hours making fliers, organizing volunteers and convincing voters during the primary season that Clinton not only had strong stances on the issues, but a plan to make them happen. But eventually it became clear that Clinton wouldn’t be on the ballot in November.

Now, Keebaugh plans to cast her vote for Republican nominee John McCain.

“It’s not my job to agree with her on everything,” Keebaugh said of her decision to go against Clinton’s endorsement of Democratic nominee Barack Obama. “I’ve basically settled on McCain.”

Keebaugh represents a group of IU students who formerly supported Clinton but have somewhat lost interest in an election without her.

“I don’t even really follow the polls anymore,” she said.

But most say they will vote for Obama, despite having spent weeks or even months campaigning against him.

Backing the Enemy

Both sophomores Kelsey Brizzolara and Sarah Robinson spent between 10 to 30 hours a week on the Clinton campaign last spring – making phone calls, printing fliers, chalking and volunteering at events. Despite Clinton’s loss, both have chosen to support Obama.

“The day that I found out he won, I said I would vote for him but I wouldn’t campaign for him,” Robinson said. “And I’ve stuck to that.”

Brizzolara said though she’s lost her enthusiasm for the election, she still supports Obama because she believes he is the better choice of the two remaining candidates.

“I wanted to be involved because I still think he’s a better candidate,” she said. “Political participation is really important to me.” 

Still, she admits she hasn’t been able to pour nearly as much support into Obama’s campaign as she did Clinton’s.

“I guess I don’t feel as passionately about him as I did about Hillary,” she said.

The gender card

When Republican nominee John McCain selected Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate in August, many of Clinton’s supporters cried foul play, insisting it was simply a ploy to gain female voters.

“It was obviously an attempt to draw the Hillary supporters who weren’t comfortable voting for Obama into his camp, purely on the basis of getting a woman high into executive office,” Robinson said.    

Brizzolara agreed, saying McCain’s choice of Palin only indicated that he chose her solely on the basis of her gender.

“I was almost offended that he would think that Hillary Clinton supporters would automatically rush to him just because he picked a woman,” Brizzolara said. “I thought it was kind of condescending.”

But Keebaugh, who describes herself as a feminist, doesn’t see it that way. Supporting a female was just a bonus to an already qualified candidate, she said. Palin isn’t the reason for her voting for a Republican.

“Being a feminist does not mean being a Democratic woman,” Keebaugh said. “Feminism should cross party lines.”

Many Clinton supporters say supporting a woman was not the sole purpose of voting for her, adding they wouldn’t select a candidate just on the basis of gender.

“I would like to see a woman president in the White House, but I’m not willing to compromise my political opinions just to see a woman in the White House,” Robinson said.

“It definitely was an extra incentive,” Brizzolara said of Clinton’s gender. “(But) it wasn’t the main basis of my support.”

Undecided voters

Still, some Clinton supporters, like graduate student Justin Ellison, say they can’t put their trust in Obama or support someone they spent so much time working against. Ellison, who is 24, has voted in each election since he was 18. But this is the first year he plans to vote for a Republican candidate or not at all.

“I still don’t like a lot of things that party stands for,” Ellison said of the GOP, “but I just don’t feel comfortable with Obama.”

Sophomore Laura Robinson, Sarah Robinson’s twin sister, is another former Clinton supporter who now finds herself torn between the man she campaigned against and the man with drastically different views from Clinton. She said she is now considering not voting.

“I don’t know that I can support the person who I campaigned actively against, because I knew it was the wrong choice,” she said. “It’s the lesser of the two evils which is what I know it comes down to.”

‘Lesser of two evils’ is one phrase Clinton supporters have certainly gotten used to. Laura Robinson said her voting is about one person’s views, not an entire party. Not being a strong Democrat has made it hard for her to make the switch from Clinton to Obama. Still, she said, “I know I can’t support McCain.”

Even Keebaugh said she is still relatively hesitant about selecting either candidate. Her solution, she said, could be voting for everything except the presidential race.

“Just because you have the right to vote doesn’t mean that you have to choose that right,” she said. “It doesn’t mean you have to vote in every single election on the ballot.”