I almost burst into a fit of rage when I was greeted with this headline on the front page of CNN.com "PUMA's Stalking Obama." I went on to read an article which inflates the importance of a fringe group. I expect to see a Column on the Constitution party next week Mark.
Mark is kind enough to included some wonderful quotes from the head of PUMA, Will Bower. Like this one,
"I have never voted for anything but a Democrat, and I feel that there has been an internal coup, and they are putting forward a candidate that does not represent the will of the Democratic Party," Bower said.
Bower is of course referring to the fact that Michigan and Florida's delegates were excluded from the Democratic primary after moving their primaries before Super Tuesday. Mr. Preston (in the interest of fair and balanced journalism of course) provides this counter paragraph,
To be fair, the DNC did go through a lengthy review process of the primary calendar and warned every state that only four -- Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina -- would be allowed to hold primaries before Super Tuesday. And if you ask the Obama campaign, it's confident that the senator is up to the job.
To be fair?!! Oh yes to be fair, I should point out that the DNC established rules for the Democratic primaries and Michigan and Florida broke those rules so they were not included. Oh yea and even after they broke the committees rules, the DNC still held lengthy meetings to try and accommodate them.
And Obama orchestrated an internal coup? Well, this is the strangest coup I've ever come in contact with. Obama committed a coup by following all of the procedures outlined by the party and beating his opponent in legitimate elections. It seems that we have been having coups ever 2-4 years around the country since America's inception. What a scandal!
And what about Hilary supporting Obama?
Clinton, for her part, is not supporting this effort, and is committed to helping Obama defeat Sen. John McCain in November, a spokesman said.
"She has been very crystal clear that she supports Sen. Obama and wants every Democrat and every one of her supporters to get behind him," said Mo Elleithee, Clinton's spokesman. "She has said repeatedly the stakes are so high and anyone that has voted for her has more in common with Sen. Obama than Sen. McCain."
Bower responds by saying
"Hillary Clinton is a voter, and we are voters and we love her and we will do most of what she asks us to do," Bower said. "But at the end of the day we make our own decisions when we go into the polling booth."
And what will he do with his all important vote that could never possibly go to Obama? According to the article, vote for McCain. Senator Clinton herself says that anyone who voted for her in the primary should not vote for John McCain. This once again shows that the PUMA groups were never really about Hilary Clinton, they are just people with an unnatural hatred for Barack Obama. The name of the group Party Unity My Ass says it all. They describe themselves as Democrats but they don't care about the party or even any of the parties positions. They are willing to vote for a man who opposes all of their interests, and the interests of America because the party did not pick their "chosen" candidate. One of the PUMA members even states this as a position of the group in the article saying,
"I would say McCain is on track to be a tired old lame duck as soon as he gets into office, and he will face a very hostile Congress," said Tarpley, noting that Democrats are projected to maintain majorities in the House of Representatives and Senate. "I think what you will have is gridlock, and I would say at this point gridlock is about the best you can do."
What a ringing endorsement of McCain. If you want gridlock at a crucial moment in the history of the United States, when we are facing enormous challenges, vote McCain. That should be McCain and PUMA's slogan- "Gridlock: The best we can do."
If PUMA admits they don't care about what is better for America, why is a columnist on CNN even writing about them? Preston even admits in his own article that only 4 out of 10 former Hilary supporters have yet to come around to Obama and that number is likely to go down even further by election day.
So let's see we have a group with an untenable position, that is steadily losing support. (Sounds a lot like Republicans) And this is news? Give me a break CNN.