Posted on Mon, May. 12, 2008

POLITICAL NOTEBOOK

Why some Democrats still can't decide

By Ryan Alessi

HERALD-LEADER POLITICAL WRITER

Believe it or not, some Kentucky Democrats still can't decide which presidential candidate they'll support in the May 20 primary election.

It's certainly not for lack of exposure. The last Democratic contenders standing, U.S. Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, have been slugging it out like champion political prizefighters since the early days of 2007.

"As Barack says, 'We've been going so long that babies who were born when this started are now walking and talking," Betsy Myers, chief operating officer of Obama's campaign, told a group of Democratic women at a Frankfort luncheon last week.

Among the 50 women listening to Myers was one of those rare still-undecided Democrats.

By her own admission, Susan Carson Lambert, a farmer and renewable energy consultant from Anderson County, should be firmly in the Clinton camp.

"She's a woman of my generation. We were burning bras at the same time," Lambert, 59, said. "I've waited to see a woman president. It would be hard ... "

She didn't finish that thought, but went on to explain why she's not ready to automatically vote for a woman.

Lambert said she's been captivated and fascinated by Obama, his message, his speaking ability and his performance under pressure.

"The thing that concerns me about Hillary is that she's old guard," Lambert said. "And people are ready for a change."

Democrats across the country know that inner conflict.

In fact, in many ways, Lambert's struggle to fully commit to Obama or Clinton embodies the back-and-forth, uncertain, seemingly endless trial of this primary across the nation.

Democrats have collectively appeared hesitant to eliminate one or the other even after more than 20 debates and elections in 47 states and territories.

Lambert insisted this is a first for her -- and not just in terms of voting for either the first black presidential nominee or the first woman.

"I'm a very definitive person," she said. "It's very unlike me not to have made up my mind by now."

In the Herald-Leader/ WKYT Kentucky poll, only 5 percent of the 500 likely Democratic voters polled said they hadn't made a pick. Of the 261 Democratic women surveyed, 7 percent reported still being undecided.

Lambert has spent the last five weeks furiously soaking up everything she can on the race.

"I had one foot in the Obama camp when Bill Clinton came to town" at the Frankfort Convention Center in late March, she said. "Right down the line, everything he said ... was what I wanted to hear."

Helping small farmers. Embracing an energy policy that moves away from oil and focuses on protecting the environment. Universal health care. All were on Lambert's checklist.

So, two days after listening to Betsy Myers make the case for Obama's "different brand" of politics, Lambert drove an hour to Louisville to hear Hillary Clinton at a state party fund-raiser. Lambert also brought along another undecided Democrat: her daughter, Andrea Manion of Louisville.

"I just want to hear a plan for improvement," said Manion, 32. "If she's too showy, it'll turn me off. You want someone who appears to be genuine, who appears to be honest."

Manion said she's liked what little she's seen of Obama's message of change but has some lingering concerns.

"I really don't like that radical preacher behind him," Manion said of Obama's former preacher, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. "That has certainly aided in getting me here tonight."

In terms of issues, Manion, who had to move to U.S. Bank after getting laid off from Countrywide Financial Corp. last year, said she will pay attention to what the candidates are saying about the economy, as well as protecting the environment.

Clinton's speech Friday marked Manion's first time at a political event. She admitted that she hasn't made a pick because, unlike her mother, she is only now plugging into the race.

"I've voted all these many years since I was 17, informed or not," she said. "And I know that, even though I was voting, it was probably a wasted vote because I was uninformed.

"But I'm not going to be uninformed this year."

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