Women gather in support of Obama

Alice Zhang/The SPOKE

By Anika Mehta

Features Editor

NORRISTOWN—Four women stood with their eyes transfixed to the screen of the iMac, intently watching Will.I.Am's popular new interpretation of Barack Obama's recent race relations speech, a few quietly singing "Yes. I can" under their breaths.

On March 29, Norristown resident Virginia Fitzpatrick hosted an open house at her home called "Women for Obama" for women who support Barack Obama in the upcoming primary elections. The open house was reserved for only women in the community, who came together to voice their opinions on Sen Obama and the current political arena.

As more women came into the home, the topics of conversation started off with how much Pennsylvania matters in this primary and how someone should vote for who they think is the best person, regardless of their party. Most of the women present were registered Republicans who were very concerned with the amount of mudslinging that was taking place between Senators Clinton and Obama.

"You don't want people to stay home for such an important election. You want them voting for the party's candidate, whoever that is. But [the mudslinging] has gone so far," Virginia Cracium said.

The women then switched focus to more pressing issues. They discussed the many different crises that the country is facing: violence in Iraq, the economy and the mortgage crisis, as well as past administration corruption, which they called "Bush's flawed philosophy," and how that should be changed.

"With the new economic crises, with the return of violence in Iraq, and the mortgage problems, it's really a good test of how our presidential candidates react. It was unexpected when they started the campaign that things would get so bad, so it's interesting to see how all three of them respond to this," Fitzpatrick said.

Around 5:00 P.M. the five women sat down and got to business. Their goal was to outline the issues and points that they thought Obama should comment on, in order for him to get the most benefits from the many grassroots organizations.

"Obama has been credited to having a much stronger grassroots, his campaign is better organized. I think that is credited to a lot of his success and a lot of his fundraising from many, many people giving a small amount of money," Judy McDonald said.

The women, with tea in one hand, and a pen in the other, prepared to help their candidate win the presidency.