The Barack Obama campaign may have been first with its
establishment of a local headquarters last week, but the Hillary Clinton campaign has now
caught up, and a goodly crowd of Clinton supporters turned up on Wednesday night
for the opening of a temporary campaign HQ at 5100 Wheelis.
That property belongs to businessman/investor Rudy Scheidt,
who said it was on loan through February 5th, the date of the Super
Tuesday primary elections in several states, including Tennessee. Two young
organizers, fresh from recent service in New Hampshire, were on hand for the
event, as were numerous local Democrats, both newcomers and veterans like Rep.
John DeBerry, who delivered a stemwinding speech on candidate Clinton’s behalf.
Conversations with Memphis college students at the event
suggested that Senator Hillary Clinton could be the beneficiary of growing
doubts concerning the viability of former Senator John Edwards’ campaign.
Said 23-year-old Kate Mauldin, a history major with a
double minor in political science and communications, “I came out of the gate a
major John Edwards supporters, and I feel, frankly, it was just be throwing my
vote away to go that way.”
Her choices came down to Clinton and Obama, though she
specifies, “The more research I’ve done, the more undecided I’ve become.” She
leans to Clinton, however, because she became disillusioned with Barack Obama,
whom she found “impressive” but whose campaign for the presidency she regards as
“presumptuous” and somewhat skimpy on concrete plans.
A reading of Senator Obama’s book, Dreams from My Father,
convinced her that Obama was a self-absorbed type who would become “another
president who would have trouble admitting mistakes,” and “that’s the last thing
we need after George W. Bush.”
Another Edwards apostate is Charlie Laster, a 20-year-old
UM junior and political science major and a veteran of numerous local campaign
efforts, including that for Democratic Senate candidate Harold Ford Jr. in 2006.
He had supported the North Carolinian in 2004 but found Edwards’ populist
approach this year to be “a little too rough and angry. He, too, was impressed
by Clinton’s hands-on experience and added,”It’s great to finally have a chance
to have a woman who can win. Equality is important to me, giving everybody a
fair shot.”
Yet another Clinton supporter, Christina Swatzell,
30-year-old and also a UM senior, majoring in political science, was frank about
acknowledging the gender element. I think Hillary’s made a lifelong commitment
to women’s and minority rights. She’s a champion of women’s rights, and,
obviously, I’m a woman. And I just think she’s the experienced candidate in the
race.”
As for Obama, Swatzell said, “I don’t think he’s genuine,
maybe even a bit sophomoric.”
Obama, of course, has his own local supporters, who see
things differently. One such is Butch Breckenridge, a 21-year-old-sophomore and
marketing major at UM. Though an African American, Breckenridge, who was
contacted by telephone, said that race factors had been “incidental” in his
choice of a candidate. “He’s really fighting for a change in D.C. I just don’t
like the way things are run right now.”
Breckenridge has been involved since the beginning of the
year as an intern, and, while, he, like the young Clinton adepts, will be
focusing on canvassing, phone banking, and other Get-Out-the Vote efforts (like
some which the Clinton campaign calls “visibilities”), Breckenridge has
organized an innovation of sorts. On February 1st, several local
musicians, playing styles ranging from hip-hop to blues to rock, will appear in
a “Barack-the-Vote” concert at the Hi-Tone, a popular local club.
–Jackson Baker
