PUMA Mostmortem #1 (Ames)

IMPORTANT UPDATE: McCain picks two-year Alaska governor Sarah Palin as his running mate, abandoning "experience" as a theme of his campaign.

I come not to praise PUMA, but to bury it.

While I'm aware that I needn't quote great men to be one (Abigail Adams), it gives me great pleasure to write the postmortem on the PUMA movement. But it gives me no joy to see the way the emotions of disappointed Hilary supporters were played upon, whether the ones doing the playing (PUMA leaders) were angry and charismatic Democrats, or false-flag Republican black ops.

Regardless, the blame lies not entirely with them. PUMA was never big. Their television presence, though, was, and therein lives the problem. The media love a divisive story of wounded feelings - "it's a scandal that'll pack 'em in the aisles" - and the crazier the group, the more interesting their story. For making the first half of the Democratic Convention about a fringe group started by racist, confused websites, shame on the media.

Of course PUMA-ism won't go with a bang but with a whimper: as their supporters desert them, PUMA is still scheming for November, couching electoral war in the rhetoric of peace (be beautiful to each other - KILL ALL HUMANS!) and swearing to not vote for Obama. Racism continues to run rampant (who would've thought that a pack of feminists would nick-name Michelle Obama "Scoop Mouth"?). As for Obama's fantastic acceptance speech, in characteristic "everything good must derive from Hillary" fashion, the PUMA spin is that it was stolen from Hillary.

As the movement fades, there's one concern to keep in mind: if McCain picks Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate, he will have made an open invitation to Hillary Democrats. Some will take it; some will not. TD is hopeful, because, as one PUMA put it, Palin would at least be a head through the glass ceiling, though a head that stands, as it were, against abortion and women's rights. But picking Palin, who's only been governor of Alaska for two years, would undercut McCain's "inexperience" talking point.  Despite PUMA delusions that she's somehow more experienced than Obama, that's not something McCain is likely to surrender. If PUMA-ism is dying, its death throes may still be damaging.

Comments

[pumabot]

It's official pumas are all gonna go nuts.
Palin will be McSames VP.

[Patrick McKinnion]

I could see where Palin undercuts one of PUMA's arguements. Remember how PUMA and their surrogates would greet any mention of Sen. Obama picking another woman as VP with "It MUST be Hillary"?? (Thereby getting back women's rights for every other woman?)

[Roar]

Another batshit crazy site for your enjoyment:

http://guerillawomentn.blogspot.com/

This site claims to fight sexism but lets comments from pumas that call Michelle Obama an "ape" stand.

[1BLSDNUPE]

“After making experience a central issue of the race, McCain picks, on his 72nd birthday, a peron who 3 years ago was the part-time mayor of a city in Alaska with a population of about 8,000 - that’s 1/20th the size of Obama’s state Senate district. That virtually takes the experience argument off the table. She’s also complimented Obama’s energy plan and is under investigation in her own state for pressuring the firing of a relative from the state safety department,” the official said.

Earlier this month, the Anchorage Daily News reported that Palin has been under investigation after she her chief of staff, other aides and her husband had contacted the Public Safety Department about firing Palin’s brother-in-law, a state trooper who was in a custody battle with Palin’s sister. Palin said she did not know about the phone calls before they were made, but acknowledged that “such pressure could have been perceived to exist.”

[velveeta jones]

Seriously, I've been laughing at this insane pick. But....what happens if McSame wins? What happens if his alzheimer's kicks in, or has a heart attack? This woman - with ZERO experience in anything, would be our leader. OH. MY. GOD. She's a freakin' creationist that wants to get her hands on {overturning} Roe v Wade.

[Katrina]

I'm just glad it wasn't Romney - I think he would be tough to fight. Palin? Not so much. It shows McCain is desperate to get conservatives back, but this lady is so far to the right she may even scare off a puma or two. Creationism? Yikes!

[Pumalicious!]

I'm watching her acceptance speech right now, and she seems likable enough. Too bad Joe Biden is going to shred her to pieces in the debate.

[velveeta jones]

She compared herself to Hillary? LOL. Oh. Its ON beotch!! LOL.

[pumabot]

She does seem likable enough, hell she won Miss Congeniality at a pageant, but her acceptance speech was tough to watch.
I think she thought she was running for Miss America.
Good luck McSame, your going to need it.
This election process is gonna chew her up and spit her out.

[Bill]

Wow

That GOP talent pool is frightening

" In 1984, she was the runner-up in the Miss Alaska pageant, receiving a scholarship that allowed her to attend the University of Idaho, where she received a degree in journalism. After working as a sports reporter at an Anchorage television station, Palin served two terms on the Wasilla, Alaska, City Council from 1992 to 1996, was elected mayor of Wasilla (population 5,470 in 2000) in 1996, and ran unsuccessfully for Lieutenant Governor in 2002."

Sports reporter? Maybe she's an expert on Chineese basketball.

"Palin served two terms on the Wasilla City Council from 1992 to 1996. In 1996, she challenged and defeated the incumbent mayor, criticizing wasteful spending and high taxes.[4] The ex-mayor and sheriff tried to organize a recall campaign, but failed.[4] Palin kept her campaign promises by reducing her own salary, as well as reducing property taxes by 60%.[4] She ran for reelection against the former mayor in 1999, winning by an even larger margin.[4][6] Palin was also elected president of the Alaska Conference of Mayors.[7]
In 2002, Palin made an unsuccessful bid for Lieutenant Governor, coming in second to Loren Leman in a four-way race. After Frank Murkowski resigned from his long-held U.S. Senate seat in mid-term to become governor, Palin interviewed to be his possible successor. Instead, Murkowski appointed his daughter, then-Alaska State Representative Lisa Murkowski.[4]"

"On July 11, 2008, Governor Palin dismissed Walter Monegan as Commissioner of Public Safety and instead offered him a position as executive director of the state Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, which he subsequently turned down.[44][45] Monegan alleged shortly after his dismissal that it may have been partly due to his reluctance to fire an Alaska State Trooper, Mike Wooten, who had been involved in a divorce and child custody battle with Palin's sister, Molly McCann.[46] In 2006, before Palin was governor, Wooten was briefly suspended for ten days for threatening to kill McCann's (and Palin's) father, tasering his 11-year-old stepson (at the stepson's request), and violating game laws. After a union protest, the suspension was reduced to five days.[47]
Governor Palin asserts that her dismissal of Monegan was unrelated to the fact that he had not fired Wooten, and asserts that Monegan was instead dismissed for not adequately filling state trooper vacancies, and because he "did not turn out to be a team player on budgeting issues."[48] Palin acknowledges that a member of her administration, Frank Bailey, did contact the Department of Public Safety regarding Wooten, but both Palin and Bailey say that happened without her knowledge and was unrelated to her dismissal of Monegan.[48] Bailey was put on leave for two months for acting outside the scope of his authority as the Director of Boards and Commissions. At least one news report (Alaska's KVTA Channel 11) noted that Commissioner Monegan received no severance pay, though oddly another dismissed Commissioner, Charles Kopp, who served only 11 days received $10,000, implying some animus on Palin's part toward Monegan (http://www.ktva.com/ci_10195264).
In response to Palin's statement that she had nothing to hide, in August 2008 the Alaska Legislature hired Steve Branchflower to investigate Palin and her staff for possible abuse of power surrounding the dismissal, though lawmakers acknowledge that "Monegan and other commissioners serve at will, meaning they can be fired by Palin at any time."[49] The investigation is being overseen by Democratic State Senator Hollis French, who says that the Palin administration has been cooperating and thus subpoenas are unnecessary.[50] The Palin administration itself was the first to release an audiotape of Bailey making inquiries about the status of the Wooten investigation.[48][51]"

[Henry]

The Republicans had two good strategies to defeat Obama.

1. Try to convince everyone that he was inexperienced.

2. Try to leverage the support of angry Hillary supporters to split the vote and try to steal the election from underneath Obama.

What they are admitting with their choice is that strategy number 1 was weak--which we knew already.

Now they are betting the house that strategy 2 will work. I don't know if it will work. My gut tells me that it will have little effect. Here's why:

Most Hillary supporters voted for her for 2 reasons in varying degrees of importance: Her stance on the issues and because she is a woman.

The ones who voted for her mostly because of her stance on the issues are not the ones we need to worry about. Obviously, Obama and Hillary are most alike than not.

The ones who voted mostly because she is a woman can create problems.

The ones who voted for her because she is a woman, tended to be most angered/disappointed by her defeat. A certain percentage of these people are people that under no circumstances would have voted for Obama. There are basically 3 reasons that these people would not have voted for Obama.

So let's examine these people:

1.Some of these people will not vote for Obama because he is a black man.

2. Some are so disappointed by Hillary's defeat that they no longer care about issues and will vote for McCain out of spite.

3. Some believe Obama is just too inexperienced.

People who fall into category 1 aren't influenced by McCain's VP choice. McCain could have chosen Bozo the clown and the effect would have been the same. We hope this percentage is small.

People who fall into category 2 also aren't influenced by McCain's choice because issues don't matter to them any longer. We hope this percentage is small but a small percentage of them may come around to voting for Obama

Anyone anyway falling into 1 or 2 would have either stayed home or voted for McCain anyway.

People who fall into category 3 ONLY, will see the hyprocrisy of Palin as a choice but will say they are voting for the President and not the VP so inexperience is not a factor.

McCain's choice was an act of desperation play to steal Hillary's votes but it's not the knock out punch that Fox News and others will try to make everyone believe. It did make it closer, however.

Something no one is talking about however are the number of black Republicans who will vote for Obama because of his skin color. Believe me, they are struggling. Admittedly, this group (black Republicans) is small to begin with. But in a race this close...who knows?

[Netta]

Wow! I can't wait to see Palin in a debate with Joe Biden!

[1BLSDNUPE]

Please see this video from Alaska

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsOJStsGB5U

[Patrick McKinnion]

I'm not the only one who's looking at this as the McCain campaign telling the PUMAs "Look, see, our VP choice has lady parts, just like Hillary, so vote for us!"

[pumabot]

Sorry in advance for this long post but it's from the (closet Republican) puma cult leader, murphy...

" #701 murphy on 08.29.08 at 12:57 pm

John McCain just delivered the death blow to the Obama Movement and the DNC. Goodbye Howard.
Millions of Democrats will now vote for McCain with Happiness and Pride.
This is a devastating day for the Democratic Party and I am DEVASTATED.
I agree with everyone — Sarah Palin seems like an excellent, competent governor as well as being a gracious, brave, and sincere person. I’d LOVE to have a beer with her.
But honestly, HOW DARE THE DNC HAVE BROUGHT US TO THIS? HOW DARE THEY?
I always knew McCain would beat Obama, now I know it will be a LANDSLIDE.
Folks, we could lose Congress with this.
SO — vote for McCain/Palin with joy in your hearts. How can I say otherwise? She was very classy to acknowledge Hillary and Ferraro. McCain was very brave and classy to choose her.
BUT — we still NEED the Democratic Party.
Howard and Obama have now succeeded at not only losing us the White House, but they have actually brought us to the brink of irrelevancy for the Democratic Party altogether.
We MUST STAY UNITED AS DEMOCRATS. Even if we are voting McCain/Palin.
Played like a piano. Thanks so much Howard."

I like this quote the most...

"This is a devastating day for the Democratic Party and I am DEVASTATED."

Sure she is,
She is as fake as that sarcastic Ad McSame put out congratulating Obama.

[Patrick McKinnion]

Most of the PUMA sites have the wraps off and are openly shilling now for McCain / Palin.

Any doubt that many of these litterboxes were false-flag operations is rapidly fading. "garychapelhill" over at Riverdaughter is claiming it doesn't matter that PUMA members "may not agree with all of her political positions", because she's not "an illegitimate candidate. She did not steal votes from her opponent."

Gary also felt the need to take a pot shot at Christina, saying:

"Obama and his supporters will try to tell us that we are hypocrites if we vote for McCain/Palin because we are ignoring the issues, and voting for her just because she is a woman. This is because they don’t understand us at all. Hell they think we are sino-peruvian lesbian Republicans. And they will have their henchmen like that deranged anti-semitic, porn peddler Christina Cedeno barking about how we’re through, that we lost, that we’re pathetic, right on up until election day. Then when McCain/Palin is done handing Obama/Biden their collective ass, we will remain as a formidable pollitical force to be reckoned with, and she will scurry back to whatever bridge she crawled out from under. "

As I said earlier, anyone want to bet that "garychapelhill" will just "happen" to end up at the RNC convention on his way back to North Carolina????

[pumabot]

Patrick,
That is one bet i wouldn't take.
Lmao

[Pumalicious!]

The thing that pisses me off is that this is going to keep Murphy, Bower, and the other wingnuts somewhat relevant for the next two months. They're going to get air time just to push Palin as the "logical" choice for Hillary supporters. The media does not care if their points are logical, factual, or reasonable. They will have their opportunity to blow their hot air and keep their base of 300 supporters in the spotlight.

Now more than ever, it is crucial that we expose, debunk, discredit, and humiliate each and every one of them.

[Ames]

Absolutely agreed, Pumalicious. Keep your ears peeled for their appearances on conservative shows, and don't be afraid to call in. I'll try my best.

[Patrick McKinnion]

Something else to keep in mind about Palin -

According to reports, she's a member of Assemblies of God, which has been agressively targeted by Dominionists with many churches "Steeplejacked" and brought over to a very hard line fundementalist viewpoint.

Palin's views on Abortion and Creationism are very much in line with Dominionist belief.

In addition, she was also a member of the "Fellowship of Christian Athletes", which has heavy dominionist ties.

http://www.talk2action.org/story/2007/8/23/142836/277

"At least one member of Bearing Fruit's board of directors (T. Ray Grandstaff) is a former Senior VP for Fellowship of Christian Athletes. FCA has been linked to dominionism in numerous ways; they are well known for "bait and switch" evangelism (in fact, they and Athletes in Action are among the two groups most frequently banned from public school campuses due to bait-and-switch "altar calls" marketed as anti-drug talks to the school administration). More info here. (Such tactics are a favourite of dominionist groups explicitly targeting youth.) It's also well known (and, apparently, explicitly by design) that Fellowship of Christian Athletes rather aggressively "dominionist-ises" any team they are let into (this tends to be bad even within the NFL, but even more so within FCA groups run in colleges and high schools)."

[Patrick McKinnion]

Also, her pastor, Mike Rose, has ties to Rodney Howard-Browne's Revival Ministries, which has been "listed as influential in spreading dominion theology"

http://www.talk2action.org/story/2005/12/19/155228/97

[polo]

wow. anyone else not surprised that the right wing fundies, and the puma are the only ones happy about this pick.

All the hillary supporters that claimed Obama supports infanticide are over joyed that a creationist is a heartbeat away from launching the rapture.

[Patrick McKinnion]

Absolutely no doubt they're trying to court Hillary supporters:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/29/us/politics/29text-palin.html?pagewanted=3&_r=1

"I think -- I think as well today of two other women who came before me in national elections. I can't begin this great effort without honoring the achievements of Geraldine Ferraro in 1984 and of course Senator Hillary Clinton, who showed such determination and grace in her presidential campaign. It was rightly noted in Denver this week that Hillary left 18 million cracks in the highest, hardest glass ceiling in America but it turns out the women of America aren't finished yet and we can shatter that glass ceiling once and for all."

[Rob in Denver]

The pick puts a head through the glass ceiling?

Sounds to me like all that'd do is cut your own throat.