Last night, we stopped by a “House Party for Hillary” at the Barton Hills abode of Karen Delaney Smith (she of the AISD school board) and criminal defense attorney/party planner Scott Smith (“My wife made me do it!”). On the way in, we passed actress Melanie Griffith swooshing out.
In the kitchen, a clutch of still undecided women struggled with whether to vote for Hillary in the primary. All said that as capable, feminist women, they’d feel so disloyal and guilty to not vote for Hillary. They respected her; they loved her on health care. And yet, they also liked Barack very much …
Working them over was Christine Varney from Hillary’s headquarters in D.C. “We need every undecided woman to vote for Hillary! It’s like you’ve worked so hard your whole career, your whole life, to finally get the corner office … and then some good-looking younger man comes along and tries to steal it from you. Is that what we as women want to see happen?”
The women guiltily shook their heads, as they sipped Merlot and Central Market sparkling grapefruit soda. They had to decide tonight. But how?
“I’ll call my parents tonight.”
“I’ll vote for Hillary. If she loses the primary, then I’ll have gotten to vote for a woman and a black man for president!”
“Hillary’s smarter. But I’m worried about her baggage …”
On the way out, we thanked our host. “Our paramount concern is to see a Democrat take the White House,” he emphasized. And our hostess: “We think they’re both great candidates. As soon as we have a declared winner, either way, we’ll be throwing lots of parties.”
This article appears in February 29 • 2008.