The power of an 18-year-old on mom.
Susan Montee said her decision to endorse Sen. Barack Obama for President Tuesday was based in part on her kids.
Montee said her teenagers are big Obama backers. "I've never seen young people respond to a candidate like this before," Montee said in a interview with the KY3 Political Notebook today.
Montee, who was an Edwards delegate in 2004, said she struggled with this decision, but said Obama brings something special to the race.
"It's a different feeling with him," Montee said. "It is so fresh and exciting. Part of it is his style. I like his approach, his inclusive nature he tries to bring to every issue," she added. "He's not a typical party-line Democrat."
Montee pointed to an answer Obama gave in last night's CNN-YouTube debate as an example. The question was whether the candidate would agree to meet with leaders from Iran, Syria, Venezuela, and other U.S. rivals. "Hillary said before she met with those people, she'd want to make sure and put out feelers," Montee said. "Obama's first approach was, 'Of course, we're going to meet with everybody,'" she added.
Montee said there's no question Sen. Clinton is "very polarizing," and that Obama could turn out to be a stronger general election candidate.
"He appeals to a whole different voter than we're going to be able to get to the polls, than everybody else," Montee said.
Montee will chair Obama's Missouri Women's caucus. She said she traveled to Chicago last week to meet with campaign staff and talk about potential events around the state. "Of course it's going to be tough to get the candidate early on, but we know we're getting his wife a couple of times," Montee said.
So will Montee begin a trend and free up other Democratic politicos to endorse the Senator from Illinois? Montee said many Democratic friends of hers remain divided. She cited a recent straw poll taken at the Boone County Democratic Picnic. The results: Obama-26 votes, Clinton-25 votes, Edwards-25 votes.
When I asked Montee why Clinton continues to top Obama in poll after poll, she replied, "They're not polling my kids."
2 comments:
I thought Obama's answer which Montee cites was noteworthy for another reason: it was naive to the point of dangerous. Clinton's answer was correct and underscored Obama's inexperience in the most important realm of American policy. If experience is the primary factor that Democratic voters weigh, Obama leaves a great deal to be desired.
I'm not so sure, Matt. I think that while Obama might error on the side of naïveté, I think that it's much more dangerous to go approach the "War on Terror" the way Clinton and, maybe not coincidentally, Bush does. The two of them have the idea that ignoring anyone we disagree with is a good way to get them to agree with us. I think hostility towards America is only nurtured by misunderstanding, which can never be addressed as long as we refuse to speak with anyone that's not pro-America.
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