"Her negative campaigning is what did it, I think. What really turned me was that 3 a.m. phone call ad," she said. "Obama is a clean slate. He doesn't owe anybody anything."
Nellie Seese, 69, of Salem, has been a nurse's aide, housecleaner and volunteer firefighter -- the prototype of a Hillary supporter. But she's behind Obama, too.
"In the beginning, I was all for a woman running. But then, after I listened to her for a while, I didn't approve. She lies, point-blank -- and her husband, I really don't care for him . . . the way they went against Obama because of that preacher," she said, shaking her head.
Many were reluctant to consider the prospect that the nomination fight was ending. But when pressed, they said they didn't believe they could vote for anybody else, despite the calls for party unity. And to many, a so-called dream ticket with Clinton in the vice presidential spot is no comfort.
"I'm going to write in Hillary on the ballot," Jester said outside the IHOP, crushing her half-smoked cigarette. "I want to see a woman in there before I see a . . . " She stopped, and her sister finished the sentence with: "a man of color."
At virtually every event Monday, at least one woman echoed the refrain: "I never thought I'd see a woman get this far."
That's what Keener, 90, thinks, too. "There's 12 other countries that have woman presidents; why can't the U.S.?" she said from her Biscuit World booth. "That's what I want to see before . . . " -- she paused to rephrase her thought -- "in my lifetime."
When it was time to leave, Keener burst through the Secret Service scrum like a linebacker, her gray head bumping the officers' biceps, to give the candidate a goodbye hug.
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faye.fiore@latimes.com
