Monday, February 4, 2008

Voters react to one Democratic nominee: What does it tell us?

Well I got my feet wet Saturday morning, jumping into the political pool. I signed up to help with the Hillary Clinton campaign in Maryland for a "statewide bumper sticker visibility" day. A group of us stood outside a local supermarket with a dual purpose of handing out "Hillary for President" stickers and getting volunteers for a phone bank this week. I will tell you right off that we sucked at getting any volunteers. I guess none of us were the right people for that job, as we all agreed that (a) we hate calling, and (b) we hate even more when we are called by phone banks.  But we did give out massive numbers of stickers which many many folks slapped ont0 their coats and jackets to increase the visibility of Hillary Clinton's campaign.

Most interesting to me was the response we got from voters. Of course this is completely unscientific, and based on anecdotal evidence, but my conclusion and prediction for the Democratic nomination is ... anybody's guess!

You see, any preconceptions I had about who would be receptive to the sticker was thrown out immediately. Middle-aged white women often responded with a comment about Monica Lewinsky, or some such silliness. A lot of African Americans, of all ages said, "Sure, can I have two?" A middle-aged white man said "Yeah, sure, I like her. She's all right!" And plenty of young white women just made a smirky face and walked on by.

So if you think you know who's going to win the nomination, good for you. (Put some money on it if you're so sure!) But here in Maryland, it's still anybody's game. We vote next Tuesday, Feb. 12, so I'll be watching tomorrow's Super Tuesday results, but no longer with a feeling of irrelevance.

2 comments:

Mauigirl said...

My 89-year-old mom voted for Hillary and cancelled out my Obama vote on Tuesday! ;-) It really is a mixed bag everywhere!

Sue J said...

Yay Maui Mom!

;-)