In West Virginia, women for Hillary Clinton haven't (quite) given up the dream

[DeepModem Mom]

LAT: CAMPAIGN '08
In West Virginia, women for Hillary Clinton haven't (quite) given up the dream
They can't get over the irony that the first woman to be a viable candidate for president appears to have lost at the height of her game.
By Faye Fiore
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
May 12, 2008

BRIDGEPORT, W.VA. — It seems like only a few days ago, right after Hillary Rodham Clinton's big win in Pennsylvania, that Margaret Hamrick was on the phone with one of her bank customers, rejoicing at what appeared so possible -- a woman, at last, in the White House. Hamrick wasn't supposed to talk politics on work time, but the enthusiasm for Clinton was infectious.

So what has happened, exactly? she wonders now, in the sort of bewildered voice that sometimes takes over after a car accident. "It looks pretty bleak," Hamrick said at a crafts fair here. "It's sad that it's got to turn out that way. I wish it didn't." Hamrick, 51, is part of a female army that is watching a dream fade with the Clinton campaign, a page of history that might not get written now after all.

Women like Hamrick can't get over the irony that Sen. Clinton (D-N.Y.) seems to have lost her race with Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) right when she looks to be at the height of her game. Clinton is expected to trounce Obama in West Virginia tonight, after which she'll doubtless bound onto a stage in Charleston to roaring cheers, bobbing signs and a sea of hats. It is sure to look like a victory in every sense, except one: Few people believe that a Clinton victory here would alter the arithmetic that seems to be guiding Obama to their party's presidential nomination.

Two candidates are vying for the same moment in history. For every point of pride welling up in those who hadn't thought they might see a black man become president, there is a counterpoint of disappointment for those who thought it was finally a woman's turn.

Many of the faithful insist she can still pull this out. Remember how the punditocracy had all but written her campaign's obituary after the Iowa caucuses in January? Yet there she was, resurrecting herself in New Hampshire, Ohio and Texas.

Now, though, their faith is fraying....

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-women13-2008may13,0,7808208,print.story

[marylanddem]

1. You know, I'm a woman & I don't get this "womens pride"

thing about Hillary. Why do so many women identify with her? Because of her victimhood at Bill's philandering hands? Jebus!

[FSogol]

2. Except that Clinton didn't really win Texas.

She got 94 delegates out of Texas. Barack got 99 delegates.