Tired voters say Democrats' primary fight divisive

By Andrew Stern

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Many Democrats are frustrated and fatigued by the longest U.S. presidential nomination battle most have witnessed, and the divisions in its wake have left some wondering if they can back the ultimate winner.

"I backed Hillary in the (Wisconsin) primary, but no matter which one gets in, I'm unimpressed by both of them at this point," said Linda Mrochinski, who works for a nonprofit organization in Milwaukee.

"Instead of a policy-based and a 'what we can do' campaign, it's become a campaign of the women versus the blacks. It's just not a very comfortable campaign at this point," she added.

Random interviews conducted after Tuesday night's split voting, in which New York Sen. Hillary Clinton eked out a victory in Indiana and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama won handily in North Carolina, showed many voters would like the Democrats to get it over with.

"Pick somebody, because I think it's probably hurting them in November," said 23-year-old Chicago software developer Matt Sawin, an Obama supporter who said he would back Clinton if she won the nomination to run against Republican presidential candidate John McCain in the November election. "It's going to be messy, no matter what."

In exit polls of Democratic primary voters in Indiana and North Carolina by ABC, more than six in 10 said they would be satisfied with either Obama or Clinton as the nominee, leaving substantial numbers unsatisfied. In Clinton and Obama matchups against McCain, anywhere from a quarter to three in 10 Democrats said they wouldn't vote, or would support McCain.

Merlyn Ware, 37, of Robbinsdale, Minnesota, a town northwest of Minneapolis, is an Obama supporter who said he would not back Clinton if Obama loses the nomination.

"I wouldn't vote for a Republican. I'm going to vote, but maybe for a third party" in that case, he said.

After Tuesday's contests, Clinton vowed to fight on though Obama widened his lead in pledged delegates to the party nominating convention in August.

Many Democrats say the battle has dragged on too long. "I think it needs to end, like, within the next week," said Lisa Gibson, 33, a homemaker in Louisville, Kentucky.

"I care for both candidates actually. I would rather have them come together on the same ticket because I think if any more really bad campaigning goes on I think it's going to alienate one or the other," she said.

WIN-WIN?

"For me it's a win-win," said Allyn Travis, the director of the Montessori Institute of Milwaukee. "Obama is my preference because I love his optimism ... the Clintons have baggage. But, if it comes down to a choice between Hillary and McCain, I'm with Hillary all the way."

But Clinton supporter Herb Buecher of Charleston, South Carolina, said he would no longer back Obama after hearing controversial remarks by Obama's former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

"I can't support a man who sits for 20 years and listens to that rhetoric and then says he didn't hear it," he said of Wright's comments, which have included the assertion the U.S. government purposefully spread the AIDS virus to blacks and the September 11 attacks were payback for U.S. foreign policy.