April 1, 2008--Hillary In "Alta Cocka" Florida

My three-months-shy of 100 year-old mother lives in a retirement community just west of Fort Lauderdale. In Forest Trace there are about 250 others. Considering how they had voted during the so-called Florida primary, I was surprised the other day when she said, “I wish we could vote again because this time the results would be very different.”

This surprised me because though my mother voted for Barack Obama, she had reported that everyone else was a Hillary Clinton supporter. In fact, they were so fervent in their feelings about Senator Clinton that my mother was reluctant to talk with anyone about the election—they were angry with her for voting as she did and she did not want to risk alienating anyone more than she already had. It was only January, but things had gotten that hot down there.

So when she told me that the situation had changed at Forest Trace, I was not expecting to hear this and said, “Really? Why’s that?”

“As I just told you, that’s because the results would be very different.”

Now this is something we should pay attention to because my mother, in spite of her age and what most other 100 year-olds are like, is totally compos mentis, reads the New York Times and Miami Herald cover-to-cover, does both crossword puzzles in ink, and her favorite TV programs are “Meet the Press” and what she calls “Stephanopoulos.” She also watches Bill O’Reilly to see “what the other side is up to.”

“I think Obama would do much better if they would allow us to have a re-vote. Hillary got only about 50 percent of the vote in January, and Obama got, what, about a third. Which is pretty good for back then when he wasn’t that well known.”

The people who live in my mother’s community are Clinton’s core constituents. At least ninety percent are white women who lost their husbands years ago. A goodly number, though they won’t admit it, were liberated by becoming widows. Many spent a lifetime taking care of their men—their husbands and sons—while setting aside their own inclinations and ambitions. Cooking, cleaning, struggling to pay the bills was what they did. Some did have work outside the home; a few helped out in the family business. And if their husbands never managed to make a good living or, on occasion, “strayed,” they understood and forgave. So now, in their 80s and 90s they have come into their own and make their own decisions about money, what to do with their time, and who to vote for.

True, they spend a lot of time kvetching about their children up north who don’t visit or call as often as they would like, about their various ailments and frequent hospitalizations, the high cost of drugs, how nobody knows how to do anything anymore, and the food in Forest Trace’s dining room. But they also talk about how ineffective and uncaring the government is, how its policies are unfair to seniors and “colored people,” how the lobbyists run everything, and how we should get out of Iraq immediately. They are classic liberals.

“Why do you say that mom? That Obama would do better? What’s changed? Is it just that they’ve gotten to know him better?”

“That too. But it’s mainly because they no longer like Hillary. They still more than anything else would like to see a woman in the White House. As president, of course. And feel if it can’t be this time when will there be a better candidate. They’d also like to see this happen during their lifetime, which,” she said with a knowing chuckle, “for most of us could end even before Election Day. Not me of course,” she was quick to add, “I plan to stick around until at least Inauguration Day. Can you imagine what Obama will say then? He’s so brilliant and eloquent. I want to hear that.”

She was drifting and I wanted to bring her back to what she was perceiving as a changing political environment, so I pressed her again, “Tell me more about why you think things would be different.”

“Not think, but know. They’ve had it with her. Look, they’re not stupid, in spite of what the fancy talkers on TV think, they know she doesn’t always tell the truth. Or if you prefer exaggerates, or as she puts it ‘misspeaks.’ I know that my candidate also doesn’t always tell the whole truth. What is it he said the other day about when his parents met? That wasn’t true because it couldn’t have been during the year he said it was. Or whatever. I don’t like that but I expect them all to do things like that.

“But what has finally upset many of the women here is what Hillary said about her trip to Bosnia. That’s not an exaggeration or a simple mistake. She made that story up and repeated it, what, three four times. And everyone knows what she was doing. I think the first time was in Texas and she even read the story from notes. Did you see that videotape?”

I admitted I hadn’t noticed that Senator Clinton was reading, though when later I pulled it up from the Internet I saw that my mother was right—she has better vision and insight than I.

“She did it to make herself look like a hero. As if she had been in combat. And that this would make her a better commander in chief. Better than Obama at 3:00 o’clock in the morning. Well, when the girls here saw that [she frequently calls her octogenarian and nonagenarian friends girls], that was it for them. They said that though they would still like to vote for her, for a women really, they won’t vote for a liar. Especially someone who lies about something like that. About something that important. Look, many of them had husbands who were in real combat during World War II. And got Purple Hearts.”

“But,” I asked, “would they vote for Obama?”

“I think so.”

“Even after the Reverend Wright business?”

“Yes, I believe they would.”

“Really? Even these women who are, how shall I put this gently, perhaps a little prejudiced?”

“Look, I know they sometimes call the women who clean our apartments swartzers. I hate that but you have to understand the generation they come from. You also have to know that many of them supported the Civil Rights Movement and even were members of the NAACP. They’re not perfect. Who is? But they are fair and decent.

“And did you listen to Obama’s speech on race?” she continued, “Well, I heard the whole thing. What was it, 45 minutes long? Did you ever hear anything like that?” I acknowledged that I never had.

“Neither did I. And neither did the ladies. I made them listen to every word and you know by the end of it they were nodding their heads in agreement and most were crying. They know, we know, that our remaining time here is short, but that we need change. For our grandchildren, if for nothing else.”

Now it was my turn to shed a few tears.