Good to have her on our side

Opinion: Supporter of Hillary turns to the other side
Marc Fisher, Washington Post columnist
Published Wednesday, October 08, 2008
WASHINGTON — Lynette Long’s friends can barely sputter their objections. “How could you?” they say. “What about the environment? What about gay rights? What about Roe v. Wade?”

Long’s son calls, flabbergasted. And her patients? They can hardly fathom it.

Lynette Long — psychologist, feminist, Democrat, Dupont Circle dweller, Whole Foods shopper, George Bush hater, Hillary Clinton supporter (to the max) — is not just voting for John McCain and Sarah Palin, she even took the stage at their rally in Fairfax, Va., to trumpet her decision to the world.

Long got the call from the McCain campaign at 10 the night before. With a twinkle in her eye, the struggle for women in her heart and mischief in her mind, she agreed to be a warm-up speaker for the GOP.

She had never been to a candidate’s rally before. She had voted for the Democrat for president in every election except for the elder George Bush’s first time, against Michael Dukakis in 1988. She basically wasn’t the political type. That is, until Hillary Clinton came along.

All of a sudden, Long saw hope. As she told her son: “How would you feel if every day all the people you saw in authority were men, all the statues in Washington are all men, the money in your pocket, all pictures of men — and then finally, a woman comes along and she could be president? How would you feel? I would vote for her.”

Long didn’t just vote for Clinton in the D.C. primary. She blogged for her, campaigned for her, even wrote op-ed columns about her. But as Clinton’s campaign faltered, Long felt wronged. She blogged about purported irregularities in caucus voting, accused Barack Obama and his supporters of taking women for granted, put all her hope in the Democrats picking a woman for vice president.

After Clinton’s campaign ended, Long was among a group of local supporters who called McCain headquarters, asking, “What can you do for us?” To Long’s shock, they were invited to a meeting — with McCain himself.

“We told him we wanted gender parity, on the Supreme Court and in the Cabinet, and he listened,” she says. “His eyes opened.” At meeting’s end, a senior staffer asked Long if she would endorse their man publicly.

“No way,” Long said. “I’m a Hillary supporter.”

Then, lo and behold, Sarah Palin happened. By coincidence, Long was on an Alaskan cruise that week. “Everybody there loved” Palin, Long says. “I could see people glowing with pride.”

The next time the McCain campaign called, Long was ready. She had 10 hours to write a speech, sleep and get herself to Fairfax City.

“What do you want me to say?” she asked the organizer. “Do you want to see my speech?”

Whatever you want to say, she was told. And no, we don’t need to see it.

“I was shocked,” Long says. “I wouldn’t let someone go up and speak without seeing the speech. But they did, and that told me something about the man.”

Long agrees that Palin is not exactly, um, worldly, and that she lacks a certain base of knowledge. And yes, Long vehemently disagrees with the Republicans’ social conservatism.

But other factors trump those issues, she says, naming Obama’s inexperience, Clinton’s treatment by her party and the media, and the Democrats’ failure to choose a female running mate.

She seems downright gleeful as she describes her fellow liberals’ faces draining of blood when she sings Palin’s praises. I posit that Long’s newfound activism is really more about sticking it to Democratic men than about a belief that McCain might promote the interests of women or that Palin would be a good president should she ascend to that role. Long protests that she really would be happy with a President Palin, a woman who understands the majority of Americans as no man could.

And then she says this: “I just don’t understand how the Democrats couldn’t see that women wanted a woman. I’m not getting back in bed with someone who’s just abused me. Yeah, it’s payback time.”

WOW. What a great endorsement! This is what has really impressed me about Hillary Clinton. I was never a fan...at ALL, but I've been so blown away by the PUMAs and their support for McCain and Palin. They're not only talking about it, they're actively campaigning for US. What an eye opener this has been for me. I would rather have Hillary in the White House than this left-wing nut who thinks he's the next messiah.

I agree with you 100%.
And if Hillary was the opponent, the campaign would be much different - there'd be concentration on the issues alone, even her past I'd gladly overlook compared to what Obama is, was and would do. Her past problems are gone and NOTHING compared to ACORN, socialism, Marxism, and so on.

I still can't wait to have Sarah in there, though. She'd good for McCain, He NEEDS her! And I have a feeling she might just get her way on a couple of things. (funny how women can do that!)

You are correct that more of the emphasis would be on the issues, but woman or not, I could never have voted for her.

(funny how women can do that!)

LOL Bill...it's a gift!

I love it when Sarah smiles and winks and says that she's working on getting McCain to support her on ANWR.