Why the PUMAs need to grow up

As a woman, I am flabbergasted by all of the media attention given to the PUMA group that supposedly supports Hillary Clinton. In all of their shrill vows to never support Obama (they promise to either stay home on Election Day or vote for McCain), you rarely hear any sort of coherent reasoning. I suppose that if this election is close, their refusal to support the won-100%-by-the-rules Democratic candidate may be responsible for a McCain win.

Of course, I wonder if they understand that not only would they be virtually guaranteeing complete takeover of the Supreme Court by the right-wing nutsos in this country, but they would be pretty much responsible for the deaths of additional American men and women in Iraq, plus where ever else McCain decides that we ought to invade. Let's see - he's already expressed quite belligerent rhetoric toward Iran and Russia. Oh yes, North Korea too.

In the ramblings of PUMAs, sometimes you hear the assertion that the way in which the Democratic party conducted the primary contests was unfair. Of course, there wasn't a murmur about it being unfair specifically toward Senator Clinton until after it was obvious to ummm....EVERYONE (excepting apparently the PUMAs) that she was not going to be able to catch up to Senator Obama's delegate leads. The fact is, both campaigns fully knew about and agreed to the rules beforehand. Senator Clinton is an experienced politician, but Senator Obama's campaign staff just schooled Senator Clinton's staff. Obama's campaign was smart and strategic, and was able to exploit the fact that Senator Clinton and her supporters felt her nomination was inevitable. Senator Clinton ignored caucus states. President Clinton's mouth could not be controlled. Senator Clinton's staff bickered with each other and they became more interested in their own careers than Senator Clinton's success. Her vote in support of the Iraq war didn't help. Neither did her insistence on siding with McCain on the gas tax holiday gimmick or her "tough-guy" stance on foreign policy.

I, too, think that the idea that New Hampshire and Iowa are somehow entitled to vote first is completely bunk. Some also think that caucuses are bunk, and would prefer only primaries. I actually agree with that too, mostly because bringing a 2-year old to a caucus on a weeknight is not particularly fun.

For the record, I also happen to think that the Electoral College is bunk. I think the 21-year-old drinking age law is bunk. I'm sure I could come up with plenty of laws/rules that are unfair. However, in a civil society, you cannot violate the law/rules without expecting some sort of consequence. Michigan and Florida violated the rules. There was a consequence imposed on them. (Well, sort of. Kind of more like when your parents ground you for a month and then let you out after two weeks.) In any event, the appropriate way to deal with these issues is to petition for change. Become a delegate. Push for change in the party platform. Do something relevant. Working to overturn Roe v. Wade or bomb Iran (which is exactly what you do when you vote for McCain) is not going to help.

Sometimes you hear the "but women deserve it" argument. AKA "but it's our time". First of all, women do NOT deserve it. Neither do men. Neither do blacks. The idea that some group in history deserves the presidency due to a history of oppression is stupid beyond belief.

Face it folks. There are EVIL men, EVIL women, EVIL minorities, EVIL homosexuals, etc. in this world. The merit of an individual does not follow from victimization of a group.

Gender or race or sexual orientation alone are not good reasons to vote for someone. I wouldn't vote for Elizabeth Dole. I wouldn't vote for Sarah Palin. I wouldn't vote for Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton. I'm not saying these are evil people by the way. Just that I do not consider them worthy of my vote.

But "Hillary should have been the VP." Um, no. Senator Clinton's insistence on continuing the primary fight to the very bitter end virtually ensured she could not be selected as the VP. In order to do well in the last few contests, Senator Clinton (and her campaign, and her husband) said some very nasty things about Obama. She ensured that Senator Obama would look like the world's biggest wuss if he picked her. She ensured that the campaign "story" would be all about her and the drama between her and Obama if she was picked.

If Obama loses in a close election this fall, and the blame is attributed to PUMAs, the Democrats will probably not win another election for a really, really long time. There will be too much bitterness and spite to coalesce the party again around one candidate. There will be too much talk of "oh, too many racists in the Democratic party" on one side. Too much talk about sexism on another side. The media will feed the frenzy every election, running around and asking if anyone is pissed off about anything.