Obama needs to pacify angry white women
NEXT | They threaten to be 'stay-at-home moms' on Election Day
WASHINGTON -- Barack Obama has some urgent making up to do among a lot of angry white women.
They are lifetime Democrats who spurned him for Hillary Clinton in the primaries and now are threatening to stay home or even vote for Republican John McCain.
Amid all the talk about a first black president, some women are deeply disappointed, in some cases furious, that Clinton's own historic campaign fell short and that Obama's campaign undercut her along the way.
Her loss was painful for women who have encountered sex discrimination themselves, especially older women who saw her as the best hope for electing a female president in their lifetimes.
Obama himself must heal the rift with women, said Clinton fund-raiser Susie Buell of San Francisco, or a new brand of ''stay-at-home moms'' might sit out the election.
''I know that women are very worked up right now,'' she said. Obama ''has never apologized for the way Hillary has been treated.''
''Worked up'' could describe Cynthia Ruccia, a Democratic activist in Ohio who got a phone call from party chief Howard Dean about her concerns last week.
''Way too little, way too late,'' says Ruccia, who also says she'd prefer to see McCain elected over Obama. AP