Party Unity My Ass

PUMA or "Party Unity My Ass," is a nationwide grassroots network comprised predominantly of U. S. Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) supporters, disaffected Democrats and Independent voters who object to the selection of U. S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) as the 2008 Democratic Presidential Nominee. Many members have banded together via the Internet and regional meetings to protest what they see as an unfair democratic primary process and to protest at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. Also known under the moniker "People United Means Action," PUMA activists have expressed hope they can convince superdelegates to award Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton the nomination at the Democratic convention. Other action steps identified by PUMA members include a Clinton write-in campaign for the 2008 November ballot, not voting for any presidential candidate, and/or supporting other candidates such as Republican U. S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ).

Goals
The stated goals of PUMA are to:
1. Support Senator Hillary Clinton.
2. Lobby and organize for changes in leadership in the Democratic National Committee (DNC).
3. Critique and oppose misogyny, discrimination, and disinformation in the mainstream media, including mainstream blogs and other outlets of new media.
4. To support the efforts of those political figures who have allied themselves with Hillary Clinton and who have demonstrated commitment to the first three goals.

Affiliated Groups

Puma PAC, People United Means Action, may be the best organized group in the PUMA coalition. Puma PAC is a political action committee organized in June 2008 in Boston by Darragh Murphy. It is registered as an unconnected Political Action Committee (PAC) with the Federal Election Commission and is organized as a 527 Organization with the Internal Revenue Service.

Organizers/CoFounders
Will Bower Co-founder of PUMA, helped launch “Just Say No Deal,” a coalition of more than 80 groups against the selection of Barack Obama as the 2008 Democratic Presidential Nominee.

Darragh Murphy created the political action committee PUMA PAC, People United Means Action, and the website http://blog.pumapac.org. Although she proclaims to be a lifelong democrat, however, she contributed $500 to the John McCain campaign in 2000. That same year, she also voted for John McCain in the Massachusettes primary, a state that requires that an individual is either registered as a Republican or "unenrolled" to vote in the Republican Primary.

Christi Adkins is a registered nurse who, along with Anne Franklin, Peter Boykin and other Clinton supporters, created the website called Clintons4McCain.com. Adkins’ organization is comprised of volunteers who donated time, effort and energy to elect Sen. Clinton, and now feel Hillary was bullied out of the campaign by sexism, misogyny, reverse racism and mockery. Clintons4McCain.com is adamantly opposed to the DNC, the media and Hollywood selecting the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee. The group’s membership vows to vote for Republican John McCain in November, under the pretext that, as an honorable American who cares for this country, John McCain would be a worthy substitute. Adkins has been interviewed on Fox News on multiple occasions about the mission of the PUMA movement.

Diane Mantouvalos is a public relations professional, who, along with Elizabeth Joyce, co-created www.hireheels.com with the goal of attracting professional women to the political process.

Robin Carlson co-founded HillaryGrassrootsCampaign.com, an organization committed to breaking ranks with the Democratic Party and supporting Clinton in the general election - regardless of Clinton’s status as not being any party's nominee.

Criticism

PUMA has been criticized on forums and blogs for their support for 2008 presumptive Republican Party Presidential nominee John McCain, although PUMA has actually not endorsed any candidate officially. Many Democrats feel that the organization's support for McCain is a strong contradiction to Hillary Clinton's views. On CNN's Situation Room, Clinton herself has been quoted as saying, "I'm going to do everything I can to make sure that anyone who supported me ... understands what a grave error it would be not to vote for Sen. Obama." Because much of the anti-Obama rhetoric is tied into a desire to turn the election over to John McCain, who staunchly opposes abortion rights and many of the other issues strongly supported by Senator Clinton, the organization has been criticized for favoring Senator Clinton solely on person or gender-discriminatory grounds rather than any real support for her policies.

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