Sanchez Sisters Have a Shoe In Each Camp

Rep. Loretta Backs Clinton, Rep. Linda Is for Obama

The focus group: Rep. Linda S¿nchez, above left, sporting leopard print high heels, is the Obama Person; her older sister, Loretta, in the leather boots, is the Clinton Person. (Photos By Melina Mara -- The Washington Post)

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By David Montgomery

Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 30, 2008

The ongoing nervous breakdown/identity crisis in the Democratic presidential primaries probably has a very simple explanation.

Clearly there are two completely different kinds of people in this world, two distinct species whom we might as well label: Clinton People and Obama People.

Take an exceedingly small but charming sample of the population, a chatty focus group of two members of the House of Representatives, nestled close on a couch in the Longworth House Office Building.

They are both Democrats, both from California. They are sisters. But one is a Clinton person and the other is an Obama person.

This plays out as a sister thing.

Loretta Sanchez (for Clinton) has just removed the leopard print high heel from the left foot of her little sister, Linda S¿nchez (for Obama).

Loretta holds up Linda's shoe for inspection. This is the kind of thing big sisters do.

"You're the shoe person," says Linda with a shrug. She says she chose the heels to add a dash of Los Angeles flair to an otherwise somber Washington office get-up.

"Are they plastic on the bottom?" Loretta asks.

Okay, yes, confesses Linda.

Loretta shakes her head. "Plastic makes my feet all yucky," she says.

You know, sisters.

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