When PUMAs Attack

John McCain's new ad features PUMA extraordinaire, Debra Bartoshevich, proclaiming that she's a "Hillary Clinton Democrat" who will be voting for John McCain:

She claims in the ad that "lots of Democrats will vote McCain" and then tries to assure voters that "it's ok -- really." Bartoshevich, who was a delegate, was stripped of delegate status. This is the second McCain ad targeted to petulant Clinton voters.  

Leaving aside the irony of calling yourself a "Hillary Clinton Democrat" and then voting for someone diametrically opposed to what Democrats--including Hillary Clinton--stand for, McCain's attempt to win this race by targeting Clinton voters is quite revealing.

First, it is a tacit admission that he cannot win on the backs of Republicans and independents alone.  McCain was supposed to dominate among independents, according to the conventional wisdom when he launched his campaign. Now, McCain pulls in just half of independents. And as for the base, there's no question that Obama's voters are far more energized, and thus more likely to actually show up to the booth on Election Day. So peeling off Democrats from Obama's column is really a last resort for McCain.

Will it pay off? Don't expect these new ads to move numbers much. Take a look at the numbers in a McCain-Obama match-up from April, when Clinton was still in the race and note that they're pretty much the same today:

In other words, stubborn "Hillary Democrats" have been factored into the calculus for a while, and when you acknowledge that "Hillary Democrats" included disaffected Republicans who voted in primaries, but would never vote for Obama anyway, it's even more clear that courting PUMAs is pretty much a fruitless strategy.

Here on the ground in Denver, you would be hard pressed to find someone who is willing to vote for John McCain in the fall.  Sure, the place is teeming with people who voted for Hillary, but the general consenus here is that we need to get a Democrat into the White House. Period.

That won't stop television reporters from flocking to the rare PUMA in the streets wearing a Hillary or Bust t-shirt.  But the force of these individuals here at the convention isn't as compelling as the media make it out to be.  While PUMAs may think they're here to roar for Hillary only, in the midst of all of this energy for Obama and the Democratic Party, PUMA whining is nothing more than a barely audible meow.