PUMAcide

I had 2 posts made up for tonight. One for a win and one for a loss. Either way, it was going to be about PUMAs. The Party Unity, My Ass crowd was the mythical group of Hillary Clinton supporters who were disgruntled enough about her stolen nomination that they were going to take it out on Obama.
That was not the case.

It was an unreliable group, to be sure. Having invested my time reading the PUMA blogs I could see both good signs and bad. Most liked Sarah Palin. Some felt John McCain held out an olive branch to them. There were others, however, that became disillusioned with politics entirely. Instead of McCain or Obama, they voted Hillary, or nothing, or for third party candidates. When it came time to pick Obama or not Obama, they chose not not Obama. And that was the same as voting Obama.

At the end, people fell for the hype. The polls are close. McCain is in the margin of error. There's an unseen groundswell. Others saw the truth. Howard Dean and the DNC bought an election. David Plouffe had to pay $60 million instead of the 40 he said, but he bought Florida. I hope all the people, criminals and Soros' out there who bought America are happy with the purchase.

Chivalry Ain't Dead

I think the PUMAs are the most objective political presence in this election cycle. Sure, they supported Hillary Clinton, but they were able to break out of party shackles and objectively see that Obama points their party in the wrong direction.

One interesting observation is their surprise at how Democratic party leaders allowed Hillary to be maligned while the Republican party stood by Sarah Palin, even in her darkest hour. Some of those attacks against Hillary were harsh and frequently sexist. Such as Obama's comment about Hillary and "periodic" rage.



Of course, one can argue that this is not the same thing, but I happen to believe the Republicans, or more correctly, conservatives still believe a little bit more in chivalry. Much has been made of Christianity and its demands that women submit to their husbands, but not much is made of the fact that men are told that their families are more important than themselves.

In a liberal world, men and women are equal. Boys should play house and girls should play with trucks. Actually, they should probably be making their own compost pile, but I digress. Obama has turned to saying that Sarah is tough enough to be treated like a man.

Of course, she is not treated like a man. Obama is a weekend parent, but Palin is criticized for having a child and daring to run for president. She is cited for her appearance. Anderson Cooper talked about her manicured nails last night.

There is also the "style over substance" issue. Because Palin is young and attractive, her experience is judged more harshly as a vice presidential candidate than the Democratic presidential candidate. The claim is that she was picked for shallow reasons. Obama was given a speaking position in 2004 because he was one of a very few Democrats poised to win a toss-up seat. A seat he won, to a great extent, because his Republican opponent dropped out months before the election. Not exactly the qualification for a president.

I don't think most Democrats hate women. I do think that the liberal wing of the party has decided to "look past" gender in such a way that they have no qualms about using deeply personal sexist attacks because they "work." Well, in the Republican party, men are men and women are women. And those men love their women.