Clinton still 'disappointed' Sanders held off on endorsing her in 2016

[Sloumeau]

323. It is true that some Hillary Clinton supporters ended up voting for McCain in 2008

The question to ask is, "Why did they vote for McCain instead of Obama?" and "Who were these voters that switched from Supporting Hillary to Supporting McCain?"

Take a look at the chart entitled "Obama's Across the Board Gains" at the following link:
https://www.pewresearch.org/2008/11/05/inside-obamas-sweeping-victory/

89% of Democrats voted for Obama in 2008, the exact same percentage as voted for John Kerry in 2004. So, if lots of Hillary supporters voted for McCain, I believe that hardly any of them were Democrats.

Obama gained 3 percentage points with both Republicans and independents over 2004, so if all of these Hillary supporters supposedly ran to John McCain, it is difficult to see what happened in the numbers. The only way I could explain a bunch of Hillary supporters voting for McCain while Obama still got great numbers would be if people who usually vote Republican, such as Republican party members and Conservative Independent party members, had dabbled with the idea of voting for Hillary but ultimately decided to vote as they did in 2004. In other words, most of these Hillary to McCain voters had probably voted Republican in 2004 and were just maintaining the status quo. These were probably not Democrats abandoning their party because they didn't get Hillary. These probably were Republicans and Conservative-leaning Independents who for some reason liked Hillary but not Obama. My first thought would be to say that racism caused this. Or maybe there were some Republicans and Conservative Independent voters, especially women voters, who really just wanted a woman to become President. You can almost see the thought process:

"Democrats are putting up a Black Man Instead of a White Woman? Fine, I'll vote Republican as I did last time."

No matter what happened, I sincerely doubt that it was mostly a case of a whole lot of Democrats thumbing their noses at Obama because they didn't get Hillary and then choosing McCain. I also do not think it was a case of Hillary damning Obama with faint praise. Her speech for Obama at the convention gave him tons of support, and there were no walkouts or protests at the 2008 convention like there were at the 2016 convention. The Democrats, all of them, seemed to pretty much accept Obama.

The actual voting numbers do not support Democrats abandoning Obama at all. Instead, the actual voting data supports the idea that people who normally vote Republican decided to once again vote Republican when they saw that the choice was between Obama and McCain...and that sure as heck wasn't Hillary's fault.