Obama, Clinton and the PUMA problem
Sunday January 03, 2010
By Tim Wilson, ONE News US Correspondent
Source: Reuters
So the youngish black guy won, as opposed to the old-ish white woman, and Barack Obama has been president now for almost a year.
But
people are finding themselves unable to decide whether Barack Obama is
simply a slipperier, less charismatic version of Bill Clinton, or a
rather pedestrian retail politician from Chicago who, while having a
good line in nuance and speeches, simply campaigns to the left, and
governs in the middle.
Is he a putz, or a genius? I can't tell.
But as the President increasingly speaks on both sides of his mouth (he
was for how US security dealt with the terrorist attack at Christmas,
before he was against it. He is now most definitely against it), a
chorus is rising: 'See, Hillary would have been different!'
Chief
in the Commander-in-Chief's domestic political problems are the Hillary
Clinton supporters of his own Democratic Party. Very vocal last year,
they have never forgiven the first Black POTUS (President of the United
States) from preventing the first Woman POTUS from ascending -in their
view- to her Rightful Throne.
I met one outside the David
Letterman show when La Clinton was making an appearance on the campaign
trail. She had been chanting 'Madame President! Madam President!' Our
relations were cordial until she determined that (1) I didn't think her
candidate was going to win (2) I was a little too evidently bemused at
her dismay that I didn't share this view.
'I don't like you,' she said, and the scowls, sideways looks, and sour comments commenced.
Fair
enough, I am an unlikeable cuss, though trivial enough to be easily
ignored. Only, she couldn't ignore me. I hadn't just questioned the
electoral chances of a politician she liked, I'd insulted her, and
everything she stood for.
It was personal. These (mostly
middle-aged, and late-middle-aged women) felt Obama had used the race
issue to jiu-jitsu the Clintons (they were right), that he didn't
really believe anything (they may have been right), and that he had no
spine for engaging the hard issues in a hard-headed way (ditto).
Their life experience had taught them that no politician could have such attributes and be trusted.
They
were so angry, they were nick-named PUMAs, or 'Party Unity, My Ass!'
These people disliked Obama so much they were prepared to savage the
Democratic party that had bred them in order to stop him. Much hot air
was expended last year debating just how this group would vote. Most of
them held their noses and voted for Obama.
Now, the PUMAs are releasing their fingers. Predictably perhaps, they don't like what they smell.
The
PUMAs are becoming TONRs. That is they 'Tried Obama, but are Now
Republican'. A colleague happens to be a TONR. He had campaigned for
Obama after the knife fights last year, but when the President blithely
said he would pour returned bank bailout money into job creation
schemes rather than paying down the bloated Federal debt, something
snapped inside him.
'I realised this guy didn't believe in anything,' said my friend.
I though of him when I read the following out of a local newspaper in Pennsylvania.
It's the same refrain, 'TONR! TONR! TONR!'
Meanwhile,
Hillary Clinton continues to keep her head down, work hard as Secretary
of State, and disavow any political ambitions. Without a Democrat Party
outlet for their anger, the PUMAs will continue to become TONRs. And
they will make their voices heard during this year's congressional
mid-term elections.