A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS
by Meg White

Former presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) is scheduled to be the prime time speaker at the Democratic National Convention tonight. Her goal [1] is to win her delegates over to the Obama campaign before she releases them for a roll call vote. But at least one of her supporters will be busy stuffing cotton in her ears.

Debra Bartoshevich is a former Clinton delegate from Waterford, WI who told [2] the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel she'd be voting for Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) when the Democratic Senator from New York suspended her campaign for president. Since she had signed a form promising to support the Democratic nominee, state committee members told Bartoshevich she was no longer welcome in Denver this week. So she hitched a ride with the Republicans.

Soon after the Journal Sentinel story, she was scooped up by the McCain campaign in their "Citizens for McCain [3]" project, which works to attract Democrats and independents. She was featured in a McCain campaign ad [4] that was released this week in Denver. At a Republican Party-sponsored press conference unveiling the new ad, Bartoshevich answered questions from the media.  When asked about McCain's stance on Roe v. Wade, she seemed to indicate [5] that his view mirrored hers:

"Going back to 1999, John McCain did an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle saying that overturning Roe v. Wade would not make any sense, because then women would have to have illegal abortions."

As for the truth of that statement (which the sneaky Carly Viagra's-the-same-thing-as-birth-control Fiorina [6] let slide as she watched the press conference unfold), here's what happened:

Sure, McCain said [7] that he would not overturn Roe v. Wade, which became a statement that he quickly [8] and repeatedly [9] retreated from. Today, he is unambiguously pro-life, with a voting record to back it up.

As several [10] journalists have pointed out in the past few weeks, any real feminist would never side [11] with John McCain on the issues. He is clearly anti-choice [12], and is very weak on women's issues. Only a voter or delegate playing identity politics could eschew the similar platform of Obama for the political antithesis of Clinton that McCain has become as he inches further and further to the right.

Watching Bartoshevich, she doesn't come off as particularly savvy. But I have a hard time believing that as a lifelong Democrat and a delegate she doesn't know what McCain will do to the Supreme Court and Roe v. Wade if he has the chance.

But maybe she does know, and she just doesn't care. She reportedly describes herself [13] as a "pro-life independent" (even though she's also referred to herself as a lifelong Democrat several times since taking up with McCain's campaign). So that might explain why McCain's position on abortion doesn't bother her, and why she (up until the press conference yesterday) has done everything in her power to avoid answering questions from reporters about McCain and political issues. 

But that doesn't explain why she lied (or, to give the benefit of the doubt, repeated the RNC lie) about McCain's stance on Roe v. Wade. I can give a pass to the average American who doesn't know McCain's position on the subject. But Bartoshevich recited the year McCain said it, the publication he told it to, and reasons he gave at the time for supporting Roe v. Wade. Unless the woman has been in a coma for nine years, I have to believe she knows where McCain stands today. And, unsurprisingly, it seems to be on her side of the argument.

A simple Internet search shows McCain is most definitely anti-choice. His page [14] on "Human Dignity and the Sanctity of Life" begins with the goal "Overturning Roe v. Wade" in big, bold letters.

In an interview [15] with a local Wisconsin news station affiliated with ABC, Bartoshevich comes off as bitter, whining that no one in what she repeatedly and suspiciously calls the "Democrat Party [16]" called her, and that McCain's campaign called her three minutes after Clinton's concession speech to have a nice chat. Another fishy piece of the interview comes when Bartoshevich mentions "pulling the lever" in the voting booth in Wisconsin, where electronic voting is widespread. She ends the interview with these heart-warming platitudes:

"I'm passionate about what I believe in.  I'm not going to change what I believe in because of a party. I'm going to do it because of America.  And I truly believe, again, that this is the greatest country and I'm going to do what I feel is right for my country."

While Bartoshevich says she's passionate about what she believes in, she doesn't, in the nearly nine-minute interview, or in the campaign ad she appeared in for McCain, ever say what that is exactly. She plays up identity politics, calling McCain a "maverick" and an "independent" while lauding his "experience and judgment." She cites McCain's carefully crafted image, without ever mentioning his right-wing platform.

It's hard to tell for sure whether Bartoshevich is a fake, a pawn, or a shill, but either way it's clear she's not for real. She shouldn't get to speak for Hillary Clinton supporters and delegates who are genuinely hurt and angered by the divisive primary campaign this year. If Bartoshevich really gave a damn about the Democratic Senator from New York, she'd leave it to Hillary Clinton speak to her own supporters.

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS 

Technorati Tags: Analysis [22] hillary clinton [23] democratuic convention [24] obama [25] mccain [26] bartoshevich [27] women's issues [28] abortion [29] choice [30] roe v. wade [31]