May 07, 2008 12:47 am
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When Hillary Rodham Clinton came to Anderson and drew an estimated 6,000 people to the Wigwam for a March 20 rally, it was easy to imagine that she would carry the county when it came time for Indiana’s primary election.
Some of those 6,000 waited in line for hours on March 20. Many dressed in gaudy Hillary-for-President garb, and some chanted and sang as if her coming were a religious experience.
When Clinton arrived, she had Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh in tow, raising the specter that a favored Hoosier son could become her running mate. Then during her speech, she hit all the chords that resonate with the masses of Madison County — the relative peace and prosperity of the Bill Clinton years, loss of jobs, federal intrusion into local education, and spiraling health-care costs.
Hillary’s best line that afternoon came in response to detractors who say they don’t want America to return to the Wild Bill years. “I always wonder what part of the ’90s they don’t like — the peace or the prosperity.”
Madison County voters obviously believe Hillary can bring back the good economic times of the Clinton years.
Obama took his turn in Anderson a month after Clinton, and his appearance had a much different feel. You had to get a ticket to attend his speech in the cafeteria of Anderson High School. About 1,500 attended, and many certainly treated Obama like the rock star of a politician that he is. But his event lacked the energy-of-the-masses aura that accompanied Clinton’s.
Now it’s clear that Madison County voters have more confidence in Clinton, more misgivings about Obama. But Obama took North Carolina and most of its 115 delegates — compared to 72 delegates in Indiana — on Tuesday, thereby inching closer to the nomination.
Clinton will still be alive and kicking, if she is deemed the winner of Indiana. And there seems to be a large enough swell of support for her in the Hoosier state to threaten John McCain in November, should she come back to win the Democratic nomination.
If Obama wins the nomination, it looks possible that Madison County would vote Republican in November.
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