Just a short Diary with some questions for you to ponder as you munch on your popcorn and watch the South Carolina Primary results come in.
If you remember back to the 2008 Democratic Presidential race, after it became apparent to most that Barack Obama would be our Party's Candidate, there was a movement to unify the Party around our new inevitable nominee. However, there were some upset Clinton supporters going around saying "Party Unity My Ass", who soon became known as PUMAs.
Will this same thing happen in the Republican Party in 2012? And if so, what will be the result? Join me after the jump /\ to ponder these questions just for the hell of it.
The 2012 Republican Race is starting to look somewhat like the 2008 Democratic Race, with two (or maybe 3) candidates winning delegates and no sign that any one candidate will be able to sow up the nomination without a long drawn out primary fight. If anything, the Republican Primary is shaping up to be far more dirty and vicious than our 2008 Primary (IMHO). So with that in mind, on to my first question:
Will there be Republican PUMAs?
In support of the "YES" answer, no matter who the eventual nominee is, the losers supporters will probably pretty pissed off, based on the tenor of the campaign thus far. This is especially true if the nominee is Romney as many expect. Many far-right conservatives and Tea Partiers supporting Newt or Santorum clearly loathe Mitt and have made it pretty clear that they don't want to support him as their nominee (at least that's what they're saying now). So it could be argued that this faction of the Republican Party could easily become PUMAs.
However, in support of the "NO" answer, the Republican Party is one of the most unified organizations on the Planet when it comes down to a matter of us (Dems.) against them (Repubs.). We often marvel with envy at the blind loyalty to Party they exude when it comes to pushing forth their legislation or stopping ours. So it could be argued that the current split is all show, and in the end there will be no PUMAs.
You decide (vote below)
So what if there are Republican PUMAs. That leads me to my second question:
What effect will Republican PUMAs have on the Republican Candidate?
Now we all know what happened to the Dem. PUMAs in 2008. While a very few went home and sat on their hands after the convention, most became extinct by willingly joining the fold in support of Obama. However, this had a lot to do with Hillary. Clinton, to her credit, made a strident appeal for Party unity both before and at the Convention. Which leads me to the Republican Candidates. Will the loser, be he Mitt or Newt or Rick, make the same noble gesture to unite the Party and quell a PUMA rebellion? Going on the assumption again that the winner will be Romney, will Newt do the noble thing and demand party unity from the PUMAs, or will he storm off in usual Newt fashion? If its the latter, look for the PUMAs to be on Mitt's butt all through the general election. We can only hope!
Go to go, but will check back on the discussion, if any, later. Ya'll play nice now!