This all felt sort of familiar, then I remember why ...

Wed July 23, 2008
Preston on Politics: PUMAs stalking Obama

Why are they angry? It all depends on whom you ask. Some of the PUMAs accuse Democratic leaders of rigging the primaries to favor Sen. Barack Obama, while others feel that he is not qualified to be the party nominee, let alone competent enough to lead the country.

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Even though Sen. Hillary Clinton conceded the Democratic presidential nomination to Obama in early June and urged all of her supporters to vote for him, not all of her backers heeded the call. Hence, the beginning of the PUMA movement.

"What we are really organizing about is to reinitiate Hillary back into the presidential race," Mann said during a recent interview at a Washington bar, where she met with fellow PUMAs for kinship and to strategize about how to make Clinton the Democratic nominee.

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If PUMAs are unsuccessful in preventing Obama from getting the nomination, what will they do? Bower and Mann said they would cross party lines and vote for McCain; Navot noted she might write in Clinton's name or not vote at all. Tarpley said he would turn his gaze towards Green Party nominee Cynthia McKinney, Libertarian Party nominee Bob Barr or independent candidate Ralph Nader.

Why Clinton voters say they won’t support Obama
The attack of the PUMAs, or a dozen reasons why Clinton voters are still too angry to come home.

But why do you keep hearing all these stories about grumpy old ladies still hung up on Hillary Clinton, the ones who’re threatening to make a scene at the Democratic convention in Denver, or vote for John McCain in November?

To be fair, it’s not just women. There are plenty of Clinton supporters of every demographic description who are still ticked. But yes, it’s true that the Clinton base skewed female, and that women over 30 are the most vocal of the malcontents. Some of them are calling themselves “PUMAs” (as in “Party Unity My Ass”), an acronym that makes them sound, appropriately enough, like cougars in a very bad mood. Who are these women, and why are they such buzzkills?

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1. They are angry because their candidate lost a close contest. This is just simple human math, and it happens after every primary showdown. Remember that it took some Deaniacs months to come around to John Kerry in 2004. It’s just that most years, the contests haven’t also been identity-politics duels between two underrepresented social groups vying for a chance at a political position that has always been denied them.

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As many people have already observed: What are they going to do, vote for John McCain?