It’s possible that Minnesotans are just nicer and more gracious than folks in other parts of the country, but the MinnPost had an interesting report on the Obama rally at the Xcel Energy Center on Tuesday, and the kind of treatment Hillary Clinton’s supporters found when they got there.
Specifically, the head of Clinton’s Minnesota campaign attended the Obama event, as did a few Clinton-supporting superdelegates, Minnesota’s Secretary of State, Minneapolis City Council President, and the mayor of St. Paul, all of whom also backed Clinton. Some were reluctant to go, but showed up in the interests of “political healing.”
And they were pleasantly surprised. In fact, both Barack Obama and Michelle Obama met privately with 25 prominent Clinton supporters after the speech.
“He shook my hand and said, ‘Thank you for being here; I’m sure it’s not easy,’ ” said Stevenson of her meeting with Obama. “I thanked him and said that everyone involved in his campaign had been so gracious. I didn’t know what to say, so I mentioned that my daughter works for a federal health clinic. And he knew right away which program I was talking about. He said, ‘Oh that’s wonderful.’ ”
[DFL activist Jackie Stevenson], a feminist and Clinton supporter, had to admit this: “He’s very impressive.”
The report added that Stevenson “had arrived at the building with Humphrey, and as they were taken to their seats, people kept stopping to hug them and thank them for being there…. All of the other Clinton supporters received similar treatment.”
Mayor Coleman said, “I think especially for women of my mother’s generation, it’s going to be very hard. They had waited so long for this (a woman in the White House). But I’ve spoken with a number of women like that in the last day. I think they’ll come around. You don’t spend your life fighting for women’s rights and then vote for Sen. McCain.”
It’s obviously encouraging to hear about Dems getting along with other Dems, despite supporting different (albeit, like minded) candidates. And maybe my expectations are off, but it seems a little more graciousness like this, from both candidates’ supporters, can go a long way.
On a related note, digby added a compelling coda to the end of the longest, closest presidential primary fight in U.S. history.
As to what happens next, you all know that I believe this is the Democrats’ year and I think that as soon as everyone licks their wounds and takes a little rest and, more importantly, sees what the Republicans are going to unleash on Obama and the Democratic party, we will all make our way back together. As I wrote the other night, I think both of the leaders need to do their part to make that happen, and I expect they will, for both personal and political reasons. […]
We will see what the Republicans have in store for us. And maybe we can start behaving like ourselves again. Family fights are always painful, but they are usually easily healed as well. Here’s to the end of the Long March of 2008.
Well said.