“This is a voter’s revolt,” said Darragh Murphy, who founded Puma PAC, a pro-Clinton political action committee whose acronym stands for People United Means Action.
Polls suggest Obama’s narrow national lead is all but disappearing amid attacks from a newly aggressive and disciplined McCain campaign. One reason for this appears to be that barely half of Clinton’s supporters plan to vote for Obama, according to an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released last week. With the last two presidential elections decided by a small number of voters in swing states, Obama needs a unified party to win in November.
Puma PAC is among a multitude of pro-Clinton groups that formed online to protest a variety of issues, including perceived media bias and flaws in the primary process. In Denver, Murphy’s group plans to show the premiere of an unfinished movie, “The Audacity of Democracy,” and is cosponsoring a protest and candlelight salute to Clinton tomorrow. Another group, PUMA 08, will coordinate communication between its members and the press, and provide a home base for bloggers who support Clinton.
A separate organization, 18 Million Voices Rise Hillary Rise, is calling on Clinton supporters to join a march and gathering celebrating Clinton’s achievements and the 88th anniversary of women’s suffrage on Tuesday.
The reporter ‘balances’ the story with this acknowledgment ...
Democratic analysts downplay the significance of the demonstrators because Clinton’s top aides and prominent supporters have shunned them.
.. but makes no mention of the racist grain running through the PUMA movement, or of the false financial assertions made by Murphy. The reporter also failed to disclose that Murphy, in the past, has contributed to John McCain’s campaign.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, here’s something we all knew would happen:
We’ll see soon if Hillary, in the interest of party unity, will succeed in rubbing out the PUMA ass-pimples, or whether she’ll use her time on stage to somehow stoke the fires of the so-called ‘voter revolt.’ If it’s the latter, we might be asking: “Who let the dogs in?”
I think Bill and Hillary Clinton will both make it absolutely clear that they support Obama 100%, even if they’re secretly hoping he loses so HRC can run again in 4 years. Whatever else they are, they’re savvy politicians who understand that even the merest hint of their having a hand in a Dem loss will forever doom their future national political prospects.
It is frustrating that the reporter would fail to mention the rampant racism that is tolerated in PUMA circles as well as the financial shenanigans and credible evidence of GOP ratfuckery. Basic research would have revealed it, and it’s journalistic malpractice to not mention it. But that’s no surprise—we know how the media love their little dramatic narratives, and pointing out that the PUMAs are fringe freaks would spoil the drama a bit.
The Boston Globe (and Boston Sunday Globe) is the most widely circulated daily newspaper in Boston and in New England. Owned by The New York Times Company, the broadsheet Globe’s local print rival is the Boston Herald.
Betty, I agree with you. I’m hopeful this will turn out fine, but if anyone is good at doing the dog-whistle thing, it’s the Clintons. Not sure I would recognize the signals to the fringe fanatics of the women’s movement, but the ones they made in the primary to the closeted racists were obvious. Fortunately, everyone will be watching closely.
Murphy today on the blog couldn’t be bothered to upload pictures of the events in Denver, but after the dueling debacles yesterday of racist comments on the blog, getting tossed to to the curb by Flowbee and having a couple of regulars leave, Darragh had this to say:
murphy on 08.24.08 at 9:41 am
Welcome new Members! Thousands more every day!! Please visit our Main Page for more info and to join Puma PAC. We are the largest grass-roots organization of citizen activists in American history. The internet keeps us connected, our principles keep us sincere, and our unity keeps us effective — we ARE the ones no one was expecting!
It seems anytime she gets in trouble she rallies the troops with stories of “thousands more!” She’s a liar and scam artist. I hope her children never realize what she’s done.
I think it’s the Herald that’s the more wingnutty of the two. A quick check of their Op-Ed page shows articles by Michael Gerson, Jay Ambrose, Dick Morris, Linda Chavez, Geroge Will, Michael Barone and Krauthammer. Howie Carr is pretty fucking awful too.
The Herald has the wingnuts. That’s why I check out the Globe for the sports stories.
I don’t know about having the Clintons speak at the convention. I’m not convinced Hillary can stop saying the words “Obama” and “opponent” in the same sentence, like she did on Thursday.
"We are the ones no one was expecting.” This makes me laugh every time I read it. OF COURSE no one was expecting you - who *expects* people to act so blatantly against their own self-interest? I’m not *expecting* that a group of African Americans will join the Ku Klux Klan, either, but if they do I certainly won’t think they are smart or courageous or helpful. Pumas are truly lacking basic common sense.
I checked some of the reporter’s other work and she doesn’t seem to have any bias for Hillary. She did one article covering Hillary’s post-loss, party unity tour, which made stops in Boston. She didn’t mention PUMA or Murphy, so it looks mostly like ignorance that she covers them now without including the contrary information.
I could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure Hillary would rather not campaign on the heels of a bloody floor-fight and an embarrassing repudiation of Barack Obama on live TV. The party would be wrecked, Rush Limbaugh would laugh his ass off and the GOP campaign theme would be “Why Should Their SECOND Choice for President be America’s FIRST Choice?”
gimmeabreak—It’s true. They’re neck-and-neck with Taylor Marsh, and their hit rate is essentially stagnant. Yet, every day, their ranks are swelled by invisible legions. Damnedest thing.
I’m sure the Clintons won’t do anything overt. I’m more worried about some Machiavellian shenanigans, or dog-whistling. That said, I thought Hillary’s belated concessionesque speech where she spoke of a unified party was a good one. I really hope the Clintons work hard to rebuff PUMA and the other bitter scraps who are still clutching their pearls. The election is a zero-sum game now, so no room for dissent.
I was downtown today to man a booth for a non-profit org I work with and it was CRAZY already with tons of people wearing badges, buttons and signs; protestors marching (and dissing Fox news apparently); jackbooted black clad riot police in clusters on every corner looking grim; rap groups playing; helicopters overhead; just wild and the convention hasn’t even started yet! But the point of my comment is that virtually everyone had on a button or t-shirt or sign or something that said “Obama” except for a group of like 3 or 4 women with Hillary signs. Somehow I’m thinking the “PUMAs hijack the convention thing” ain’t happening. More later on PUMA doings right here in the Mile High City.
marindenver—I think you’re on to something. Their nightly blogcast was a shipwreck of free-form, impotent whining, and the news that Hillary is releasing her delegates has sucked the wind out of their sails.
PS: PUMApac was targeting one of the delegates for an email swarm, but I alerted him first. I received a quick, happy reply to the effect of “All I want is a Democrat. ANY Democrat.”
The media is amplifying their scant real-world presence because they are an anomaly, a sidebar and comic relief doe bored TV pundits.
Stay frosty. Be safe. I understand some of the PUMAs may be packing hairpins and astringent wipes.
