Ardent Clinton supporters eyed in election

By Andrea Hopkins

CINCINNATI (Reuters) - Homemaker Mary Mardis, 52, liked U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton but now she's not sure who she'll vote for in November. Maybe Barack Obama, who beat Clinton to win the Democratic nomination. Maybe Republican John McCain.

"I was leaning toward Hillary. Now I'm undecided," said Mardis as she wheeled her baby nephew through a Cincinnati bookstore. "I will vote, but I'll probably be one of those people who decide two days beforehand."

Since Clinton conceded to rival Obama in the Democratic race on June 7, there has been endless speculation about the intentions of her disappointed female supporters.

Would they refuse to support Obama? Not vote in November's presidential election? Or worse, throw their support to Republican McCain?

Everywhere, it seems, there are examples of each.

Furious loyalists of the former first lady protested at a Democratic Party meeting in Washington, vowing to bolt from the party if Clinton did not win the nomination.

Last week, the co-chairs of the University of Iowa Students for Hillary told followers they should vote for McCain, or, if they could not "stomach" that, consider Cynthia McKinney, the presumptive Green Party candidate.

On the other hand, prominent feminist and women's rights organizations, including Emily's List and Planned Parenthood, have rallied behind Obama and begun attacking McCain for his conservative record on issues like abortion.

Clinton endorsed Obama and urged her backers to throw their support behind the Illinois senator.

American women have tended to be more Democratic than Republican since 1980, though their party loyalty varies depending on the election year and candidates. This year, too, polls show most American women prefer Obama to McCain -- by a wide margin.

An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll last week showed 52 percent of women favored Obama, while 33 percent preferred McCain.

But the same poll showed 19 percent of voters who cast ballots for Clinton in the Democratic primaries preferred McCain over Obama -- a large number considering Clinton and Obama agree on most policies, while McCain's platform is strikingly different.

TEMPERS WILL COOL

Lingering intraparty bitterness over the U.S. primary process is nothing new. McCain denied reports earlier this year that he did not vote for George W. Bush in 2000 after losing to him in the Republican primaries that year.

That somehow Clinton's female supporters would be especially bitter because the New York senator missed her chance to be the first female U.S. president does not strike Kristi Andersen, a political science professor at Syracuse University, as terribly plausible.