"Women push back in support of Clinton"
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"NEW ALBANY, Ind. - Debra Starks has heard the calls for Hillary Rodham Clinton to quit the presidential race, and she's not happy about it.
"The 53-year old Wal-Mart clerk, so bedecked with Clinton campaign buttons most days that friends call her "Button Lady," thinks sexism is playing a role in efforts to push the New York senator from the race. Starks wants Clinton to push back."
"My e-mail is bursting with women who are furious, and it's grown in the last week," said Ann Lewis, Clinton's director of women's outreach and a longtime Democratic activist.
"These women are the volunteer infrastructure of the Democratic Party who've been proud to support Democratic officials for what they believe and stand for," Lewis said. "They are very angry that people they've worked for so hard would be so dismissive of Hillary and, by extension, of them and what they value."
"Indeed, the gender gap in most of the primaries thus far has been stark."
"In California, Clinton bested Obama by a margin of 59 percent to 36 percent among women. She beat him by 54 percent to 45 percent among women in Ohio, an important general election battleground state."
"Obama, in turn, has walloped Clinton among men in nearly every state. But he's prevailed among women in just a handful of places, including his home state of Illinois and states with large black populations."
"For his part, the Illinois senator — whose seemingly disrespectful crack of "You're likable enough, Hillary" during a debate with Clinton may have cost him the New Hampshire primary — said Saturday he did not believe Clinton should end her campaign. "
"My attitude is Senator Clinton can run as long as she wants," Obama said in Pennsylvania, which holds its primary April 22.
"Nine more primaries follow, ending June 3."
"Clinton insists she's in it to the end, saying a "spirited contest" is good for the party and ultimately will produce a stronger nominee."
"There are millions of reasons to continue this race: people in Pennsylvania, Indiana and North Carolina, and all of the contests yet to come," she told reporters Friday in Hammond, Ind. "This is a very close race and clearly I believe strongly that everyone should have their voices heard and their votes counted."
"Campaigning across the state Saturday, Clinton was greeted by large, heavily female crowds that shouted "You go, ******!" and "We've got your back!" in support of her pioneering candidacy. Indiana votes May 6."
"Marie Wilson, president of the White House Project that trains women to run for office, noted that women typically have rallied around Clinton when she's appeared most vulnerable — from the revelations of her husband's dalliance with White House intern Monica Lewinsky to January's New Hampshire primary after the bruising loss to Obama in Iowa."
"Women have always been asked to step aside if it was somehow for the greater good. In this case, Clinton, and a lot of her female supporters, clearly feel that she would make the better president and that it would not be for the greater good for her to step aside," Wilson said.
