Prediction: Hillary Clinton will not Win the California Presidential Primary

I'll let you in on an important political secret: my mother is the unit California Democrat. As she votes, so vote the Democrats of California. As long as I have been tracking it, this has been proven to be true.* And my mother doesn't like (putting it mildly) Hillary Clinton.

Here are the facts: she is a retired schoolteacher, born and raised in the deep south east, she has lived in California 55 years (40 of them in San Diego). Although widowed by a radical leftist (yes, my father) who registered Peace and Freedom Party and often voted for losing third party candidates against mainstream Democrats, my mother is a yellow dog Democrat. There isn't an ounce of swing voter in her. She is relatively socially liberal, tends to be comfortable with and support the mainstream Democratic choices.

She supported Bill Clinton, Michael Dukakis (she loves Greeks), Walter Mondale, Al Gore and John Kerry in their respective primaries (and she supported them long before the historically late California primaries rolled around). She still holds bitterness and resentment against some of her children for "throwing the election to that man (W)" by supporting Ralph Nader in 2000. "That man" was also what she called Ronald Reagan.

Closer to home, she supported Gray Davis until the San Diegans started to experience blackouts and electricity rate hikes. Then she started to hate him and voted for Cruz Bustamante in the recall--I think she voted against the recall because she was worried about Schwarzenegger winning, but I'm not sure, I should check.

She always votes in every single election. She calls my husband and goes over any questions she has on her ballot with him, taking his advice if she doesn't know more about it herself from locals. She is also very interested in how the local teachers' union tells her to vote. If the teachers' union's opinion differs from ours, she'll usually go with the union.

So last night, I gingerly broached the subject of who she was favoring in the California Presidential primary. I had been avoiding the subject for months afraid that it would be Hillary, given her affection for her husband.

Her response? "I'll tell you who I don't favor, Hillary Clinton. How anybody could vote for that woman is beyond me. I don't think she can win. The Republicans are all united against her. And I don't want her to be President. I don't trust her. I'm afraid I'm going to have to support that Obama, Barat (sic) whatever is name is, whom I've never even heard speak."

Music to my ears. A white woman brought up in the cradle of the confederacy, with all that that implies, would rather support a black man whose name she doesn't even remember over Hillary Clinton.

There's hope!


*Exception, my mother did not vote for stunning upset Assembly primary winner, Lori Saldana in 2004. Perhaps she is only the prognosticator of statewide outcomes, not local races.