I received an odd phone call here in South Dakota from the Clinton campaign tonight. And I think I, like so many of us, have such campaign fatigue I’m not sure if I’m angry or just sad about it. A Clinton volunteer called my home at 8 p.m. The caller identified himself and told me he was calling on behalf of Hillary Clinton. He asked if he could count on my support in the primary next week. I was very polite (stress is just not good for me these days) and said I was sorry, but I already voted and did not vote for Senator Clinton, but for Barack Obama. That should have been the end of the phone call. I told him I already voted.
Instead, the volunteer was armed with considerable information (bad information) and proceeded to interrogate me about why I voted for Obama and, more interestingly, why I didn’t vote for Hillary. The volunteer asked me what I thought about the states Clinton won that Barack didn’t. I told him it depends on what states he was talking about and that I wasn’t worried about how Obama would do in many of those states in the fall. He berated me and I mentioned states in which Obama was polling ahead of Clinton and was beating McCain. He told me I was wrong had old polling information from Ohio and Pennsylvania to back up his claims. I suggested those were old numbers and mentioned again that I didn’t think it would be a problem in the fall.
The caller got particularly exercised when he asked me why I voted “against” Senator Clinton. I noted the Rovian tactics of the campaign and refusal to work for the betterment of the party’s chances in the fall. At that, the caller became even more upset and ended the call after I said, “this phone call is indicative of the problems with the Clinton campaign and some of its supporters.”
Again, I already voted, so what’s done is done and this guy wasn’t going to change my mind. But don’t you think any normal campaign would want voters to leave a conversation such as this one with a positive or at least neutral feeling toward the volunteer and the campaign – even if they support the other candidate? I mean, after I mentioned I voted for Obama ALREADY, he could have simply said, “Well, thank you.” or “Thanks for being a/voting democrat.” or “I’m sorry to hear you won’t be voting for Clinton in the primary, but I hope you will consider voting for Sen. Clinton if she is the nominee…” – SOMETHING positive, right?
Doesn’t this seem like a poor way to cultivate future support, should Hillary need it?
I suspect that a lot of South Dakotans are receiving similar, pushy phone calls from the Clinton campaign. And it probably only signifies that Hillary’s supporters have fully bought into her victimhood to the point where they’ll browbeat fellow Democrats who simply don’t support the senator’s campaign. It’s sad, really.
