Opinion: A Hillary Clinton fan comes to Invesco, waiting to be converted

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DENVER -- Debbie Diver of nearby Englewood, Colo., so wanted to attend the Barack Obama show at Invesco Field today that she not only came early, she dragged along her 83-year-old, wheelchair-bound father, who was visiting from Los Angeles.

But don’t mistake Diver for an Obama fanatic. In fact, she’s precisely the demographic that will be among those uppermost in Obama’s mind as he embarks on his stemwinder tonight -- a middle-aged (52), hard-core Hillary Clinton backer for whom the new Democratic presidential nominee hasn’t yet sealed the deal.

‘I’m leaning Obama, but I’m still mad. It’s a childish mad, but there it is,’ she said before heading to her seat at the stadium.

So why was she even here? ‘I wasn’t going to let my disappointment stand in the way of being at what is an historic event,’ she said.

Obama’s selection of Joe Biden as his running mate -- widely praised by many party leaders -- actually made the sale harder for Diver, an office manager for a commercial furniture company.

The reason? Clinton’s oft-touted 18 million votes compared to what Diver calculated was about 9,000 for Biden before he quickly pulled the plug on his presidential candidacy. ‘She deserved it,’ Diver said. ‘I wanted (Obama) to pick her.’

-- Don Frederick

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