PUMAs Not Extinct
Karen Brooks, in The Dallas Morning News Trailblazers blog, relates the reaction to her story about the PUMA (Party Unity My Ass) movement. PUMA was started by Hillary Clinton supporters as backlash against calls for party unity following Barack Obama's securing the Democratic nomination for President. The gist of Brooks' story is:
"If the polls and the media are any indication, the once-ferocious roar of the PUMAs is sounding more like the quiet, harmless purr of a kitten."Predictably, that triggered a rash of reader responses saying it's not so, that millions of PUMAs are out there, that they are just as unreconciled, just as determined as ever to oppose Barack Obama and tip the election to John McCain. They even have an explanation why their numbers appear to be so small -- they are lying to pollsters, telling them they plan to vote for Obama. They predict one of the biggest upsets in presidential election history.
That theory is far-fetched, but the depth of the disaffection of the PUMAs is real, even if their numbers are dwindling. These are voters who started out supporting Hillary Clinton, but no longer follow her lead as Clinton endorses Obama/Biden over McCain/Palin. These are voters who supported Clinton's positions on health care, women's rights, the economy, foreign policy, the environment, etc., but now claim to support John McCain, whose own positions on those issues are opposed to hers. Sarah Palin's positions are, if anything, even more opposed to Clinton's than McCain's are. A Clinton candidacy that a year ago was so positive and forward looking has dissolved, leaving only the PUMAs who draw their strength from negative feelings about the past.
Ironically, the McCain campaign is now an alliance of people who hated Hillary and people who loved Hillary. I wonder what they find to talk about at the McCain rallies. Probably how much they both hate Barack Obama. Strong motivation in an election campaign, certainly, but not much of a platform for governing once they win the election. Thankfully, there's not much chance they'll be required to do any governing after the election results are known.
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