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Breathtaking PUMAs
"The stated goals of PUMA are to: 1. Support Senator Hillary Clinton. 2. Lobby and organize for changes in leadership in the DNC. 3. Critique and oppose misogyny, discrimination, and disinformation in the mainstream media, including mainstream blogs and other outlets of new media. 4. To support the efforts of those political figures who have allied themselves with Hillary Clinton and who have demonstrated commitment to the first three goals. 5. [Help to] destroy America by voting against their values." -- straight from the PUMA Wikipedia page.
The PUMAs feel that their candidate lost, in part, because the misogynists ganged up on her and pulled strings that led in some roundabout way to her defeat. What is a reasonable person supposed to say to such tripe? Hillary Clinton's campaign was about arrogance, bullying, bad planning, old-school negativity, racial innuendo, taking the scummiest road imaginable, using any ruse or trick in the dirty book of politics to appeal to the dumbest people out there, playing upon gender loyalty, downing shots with beer-gut racists, crying when it suited her drama-queen purposes, trying out cheap gimmicks like the gas tax idea, implying a Muslim heritage or allegiance on Obama's part, praising McCain over Obama, angrily saying "shame on you, Barack Obama!" when he correctly repeated her NAFTA views, etc.
In short, it was one of the most despicable campaigns in modern political history -- relentless, ghastly, appalling. And yet the die-hard PUMA people, stunningly, mind-blowingly, actually believe that the people who banded together and defeated Clinton's campaign -- which her all-together-now female supporters felt was a non-negotiable historical inevitability -- are in some way demonic and hateful, and that the only thing for them to do now is to support John McCain.
There is no question that the Clintons earned their rep move by move, and that they lost by their own hand. The academic woman who was fired by the Obama campaign for calling Hillary a "monster" was Joan of Arc in my mind -- burned at the stake for being true to her beliefs, and to God's radiant light. Some people say never forget the Holocaust or 9/11. I say never forget what the Clintons did and what they were each and every day during the '08 Democratic primary campaign.
Posted by Jeffrey Wells on June 27, 2008 at 2:11 PM
comment #1
Geoff
says ...
I'll always remember how horribly run her campaign was from the start, the idea that Obama just has a speech so you might as well vote for McCain, and that horrible 3AM call. And fuck any talking head who proclaims she really started to find her voice in the end. Give me a break.
Posted by Geoff
at June 27, 2008 2:54 PM
comment #2
George Prager
says ...
The world is full of losers. What are ya gonna do?
Posted by George Prager
at June 27, 2008 3:04 PM
comment #3
BurmaShave
says ...
I imagine once their funding is traced back to right wing figures their support, such as it is, will dwindle.
Posted by BurmaShave
at June 27, 2008 3:16 PM
comment #4
NotImpressedYet
says ...
Pretty harsh words for her campaign. Does everyone here agree with that assessment? I hope Jeffrey concedes that this description involved a bit of hyperbole (demonic?)
Is there any evidence that this PUMA group is anything more than a couple of nutjob true-believers with no actual signifance or influence? If not, then why even give it attention? Or does Jeffrey actually believe that PUMA is representative of people who supported Hillary in the primary?
I guess what I'm really trying to find out if there was any point in this post other than for Jeffrey to insult Hillary Clinton some more.
Posted by NotImpressedYet
at June 27, 2008 3:43 PM
comment #5
vulgar71
says ...
No. 5 above has been edited out (not by me) of the PUMA Wikipedia page, which I imagine shouldn't come as a great surprise.
Posted by vulgar71
at June 27, 2008 4:01 PM
comment #6
CinemaPhreek
says ...
RE: No 5 - did you check the history? It was obviously vandalism. Still made me laugh, though
Posted by CinemaPhreek
at June 27, 2008 4:18 PM
comment #7
gruver1
says ...
Wells to NotImpressedYet: A PUMA spokesperson (glasses, wearing her dark hair in a bun) was interviewed on MSNBC today, and was clearly in the grip of enormous anger and resentment due to the fact that she couldn't say anything about Obama except "he's not for me" over and over. In other words, I took this to mean, he and his followers have thwarted Hillary's historically inevitable finally-a-woman-in-the-White House! campaign, so fuck him and the horse he rode in on, and pass the cyanide capsules on our way to hell. The woman was insane.
Posted by gruver1
at June 27, 2008 4:18 PM
comment #8
dukedog
says ...
When women pull this kind of "Hell Hath No Fury" junk, I usually just feel embarrassed for them, but when they have the potential to screw up this country even further acting like a buncha pouty toddlers (I know, I got one of those at home. Actually, no, my two year old doesn't act this bad!) I got a real problem with it. I am a woman myself by the way.
Mr. Wells: Ya hit right on the head about the Clintons. I grew up in Arkansas, so I have been around the Clinton machine for a long time.
Posted by dukedog
at June 27, 2008 4:20 PM
comment #9
DarthCorleone
says ...
I can just imagine the smug little meeting that generated that oh-so-clever organization title with its oh-so-clever vicious feline acronym.
Posted by DarthCorleone
at June 27, 2008 5:36 PM
comment #10
nemo
says ...
Doesn't PUMA mean a middle-aged hot mama who hits on younger men? Like Kim Cattrall in Sex and the City?
Posted by nemo
at June 27, 2008 10:46 PM
comment #11
nemo
says ...
"The academic woman who was fired by the Obama campaign for calling Hillary a "monster" was Joan of Arc in my mind ..."
That would be Samantha Power. She spent most of the 90s as a journalist in the former Yugoslavia. Only in the last few years did she become an academic in the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
She's really sharp on the subjects of genocide, human rights abuses, and AIDS. Don't worry, she'll be back to advising Obama after a decent interval in obscurity. She'll be valuable.
She's not a politician, but she committed Michael Kinsley's definition of a political gaffe: accidentally speaking the truth.
Posted by nemo
at June 27, 2008 10:56 PM
comment #12
NotImpressedYet
says ...
My point still stands - this PUMA group is a tiny circle of idiots with no real importance or significance. Jeffrey is using them as a straw man to help justify his nasty and bitter feelings towards Hillary Clinton.
The fact that MSNBC ran something on this (in the daytime) just shows how much cable news BLOWS.
Posted by NotImpressedYet
at June 28, 2008 6:05 AM
comment #13
Ogami Itto
says ...
Doesn't PUMA mean a middle-aged hot mama who hits on younger men? Like Kim Cattrall in Sex and the City?
An older woman who chases after younger men is a cougar.
And Jeff, I thought you said that the Clintons were swell because Bubba likes High Noon?
Posted by Ogami Itto
at June 28, 2008 7:10 AM
comment #14
George Prager
says ...
PUMA:
Priggish
Unpopular
Morose
Assclowns
Posted by George Prager
at June 28, 2008 1:50 PM
comment #15
TL
says ...
"Is there any evidence that this PUMA group is anything more than a couple of nutjob true-believers with no actual signifance or influence? "
No, there isn't. In fact, all the polling evidence (which shows the core of the Clinton coalition backing Obama) would indicate that the PUMAs are exactly as you describe them.
Posted by TL
at July 8, 2008 3:23 PM
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