Anti-Hillary, anti-Wright take tolls
Posted: Tuesday, May 06, 2008 7:22 PM by Domenico Montanaro
From NBC's Kevin Corke and MSNBC.com's Andy Merten
We've been at the Tippecanoe County Fairgrounds since 5:30 a.m. watching as a steady stream of voters cast their ballots beginning at 6 a.m.
While Sen. Hillary Clinton is expected to easily win the county, we have begun to see (and hear from) there are some anti-Hillary voters. One man, who declined to be interviewed, had a bumper sticker on his red pickup that read, "Anybody But Hillary."
Donna Deerr, a Lafayette native, didn't mince words about her opinion of the New York senator.
"I want her out of my life," said the 66-year old. Deerr said she voted for Obama today, but will vote Republican in the fall.
Deerr said her vote had nothing to do with “Operation Chaos,” the effort by some Republican voters to prolong the Democratic primary fight by voting to keep Obama and Clinton even in the balloting.
"Nope, I'm just sick of the Clintons," she said.
Dave Hutchison, an insurance executive, voted for Romney. "Whoever the Democrats nominate will be so far away from my values it doesn't matter who it is," said the 50-year old.
But not everyone was against Sen. Clinton. One woman, who declined to be interviewed, but appeared to be well into her 70s said "Hillary's just as good as the boys."
Which it would seem is precisely the sort of reasoning that could propel Clinton to an important win here today.
But in Southwestern Indiana the Rev. Wright flap seemed to be resonating in the minds of some voters, particularly in these more rural parts of the state.
“I cannot stand here and think that that was the first time his preacher has talked that way,” said Brett Schaefer after voting at a polling place in Boonville, Ind., near Evansville. “It scares the hell out of me; it really does.”
Asked if she would vote for Obama in November should he be the nominee, she said she wasn’t sure, although her friend who accompanied her to the poll, Michelle Nix, said she would not.
But even in this conservative stronghold, neither said they would necessarily vote for McCain.
“I think McCain is just another Bush,” Schaefer said. “I mean, you have to choose between a gallon of milk and a gallon of gas,” she added, quoting a Clinton ad that’s been playing here nearly verbatim.
Republican crossovers also abound. At a polling station down the road in Newburgh, a self-described Independent voter, who said he has voted for the GOP candidate in recent presidential elections, said he was part of “Rush Limbaugh’s ‘Project chaos,’” which seeks to prolong the Democratic nomination process.
The former teacher, who requested to not be identified by name, said he wishes he had a “third choice” come November, unsure if he’d vote for the eventual Democratic nominee or McCain. After considering it for a moment, he added, “Most likely it will be Sen. McCain.”
He then headed into the junior high school doubling as a polling place and cast his Democratic ticket for Clinton.
Read more from Southern Indiana.
With reporting from NBC’s Kevin Corke in Tippecanoe, Ind., in the Northern part of the state and MSNBC.com’s Andy Merten in the Southwestern portion.
