Clinton backers take her exit hard

WASHINGTON - Bettyjean Kling is tough, she's mad and she's about ready to kick some MSNBC butt.

"Chris Matthews, I can't even look at him anymore," Kling said as she waited for Hillary Rodham Clinton to take the stage. "What's the name of that other nut?"

"Keith Olbermann," offered a friend.

"Keith Obama-man," Kling said, growling.

Clinton's campaign valedictory was "the very definition of bittersweet," said Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., a longtime Clinton supporter who insisted that the greater goal of a Democratic White House would unite those who gathered on a steamy day in the cavernous main hall of the National Building Museum.

But it seemed to be more bitter than sweet for many, with special acid reserved for the media. Several of the hundreds gathered said they thought that unfair news coverage helped Illinois Sen. Barack Obama win the Democratic presidential nomination. Other common culprits were the Democratic National Committee and the party's superdelegates, who helped swing the nomination to Obama in the past few weeks.

"I'm mad at everybody," said Darla Stone, a prison nurse from Locust Grove, Va.

"I've been really sad the last few days," said Donna Richbourg, a retired federal employee from Potomac, Md., who switched parties to vote for Clinton in the Maryland primary. "Before that, I was extremely mad."

Drawn to Clinton by "her tenacity, her resilience, her intelligence, the depth of her knowledge," and aghast at a media she felt ignored or belittled those things, Richbourg drew this conclusion from the campaign: "There's more sexism than racism in America."

Obama, meanwhile, has some work to do. Some Clinton voters said they would vote for John McCain, the Republican nominee. Some said they wouldn't vote at all. Many were grudgingly accepting.

"Will I vote for McCain? No," said Angelia Ifantides, a teacher from Fairfax, Va., who wore a pink T-shirt with Clinton's face silk-screened on it in red. "Will I put an Obama sticker on my car? Probably not. I'll accept it in November. I have the right to be angry till then."

While Clinton acknowledged the heartache that many of her supporters felt -- and that she surely shared -- she urged them to tough it out and put it behind them.

"Every moment wasted looking back keeps us from moving forward," Clinton concluded. "That's why I'm going to work my heart out to make Barack Obama president."

At the back of the room, her shoulders slumped, stood Kling. The retired special-ed teacher from Shippensburg, Pa., slowly shook her head from side to side. She wiped away tears.

She did not applaud.