Hillary's PUMA Group Trying to Get 175 Delegates to Switch to Hillary

[Herb Schaffler]

In the wake of Barack Obama's recent perceived move to the center, disaffected supporters of Hillary Clinton have released a "Call To DNC Delegates" urging them to "leave fraudulent Obama in Denver" and "save the Democratic Party by nominating the truer Democrat."
Posted [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This No Hillary For President Forum Link. of the group called PUMA or "Party Unity My ###" -- one of the groups that make up the mostly Democratic anti-Obama "Just Say No Deal coalition" -- the call asks "just 175 delegates" to throw their support to Hillary Clinton at the convention.
"We are not calling for some futile and self-defeating gesture," the post reads. "We are pointing to the path that leads to victory."

With Senator Clinton, we have a superior, battle-tested, and winning candidate who is waiting in the wings, ready, and willing to take over. Clinton would be a reliable leader on the issues that have built the Democratic Party. She has stood firm on her positions -- past and present -- even when it is not politically expedient.

The call enumerates Obama's recent alleged strategic backpedaling on key progressive issues -- on withdrawal from Iraq, for example, opposition to the new FISA bill and efforts to privatize social security.

From the instant that he felt that the Democratic nomination was in his hands, Obama has moved relentlessly to the right in a breathtaking, stunning exhibition of cynicism, duplicity, and fraudulent campaigning. Everything he stood for has been thrown overboard, and Obama has broken his word -- the commitment he made to his own core voters and donors.

Soon there will be no difference at all between Obama and McCain on the Iraq war, and the Democratic Party will have missed yet another historic opportunity to help the American people end Bush's and Cheney's failed Neo-Conservative policies. McCain is exploiting Obama's radical shifts in position as examples that Obama has no principles, but only opportunism and expediency, and that his much-touted soaring words mean absolutely nothing.

Obama promised to stop Bush's assault on the Constitution and civil liberties, and end illegal wiretapping. Now, Obama will vote for the Republican leaning compromise on the FISA bill, including immunity for the telecoms -- something only yesterday he promised the Democrats who supported him he would filibuster.
[...]
Obama now openly supports the death penalty, more of Bush's faith-based theocratic subsidies, and the "merit pay" assault on teachers. He wants to cut the corporate income tax, and he now opposes attempts to curb hand gun violence.
In a most glaring betrayal to his contract with the Democratic base, Obama's current team of economic advisers suggests that he will soon come out for the partial privatization of Social Security, camouflaged as "entitlement reform."

According to the PUMAs, if left un-addressed, Obama's strategic blunders will cost Democrats the White House:

McCain will point out that voters cannot trust the disingenuous Obama, and on that, McCain will be correct.

But they have their answer:

Fortunately, Obama has tipped his hand by dropping his mask too soon: there is no Democratic nominee until the Roll Call of the States on August 27, 2008 in Denver.
[...]
The fate of the United States -- and the future of the Democratic Party - now rests with a minimum of 175 Democratic delegates who must now exercise their mature political judgment in the service of their country, and turn away from Obama to support Senator Clinton.
As of now, Obama has about 2229.5 delegate votes, with 1766.5 pledged delegates and 463 super delegates.
Clinton has 1896.5 delegate votes, with 1639.5 pledged and 257 super delegates.
Shift just 175 delegates from Obama to Clinton, and Obama's power grab comes to a halt.

On some level, the call represents a perhaps predictable turn for the PUMAs and the Just Say No Deal coalition. In an [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This No Hillary For President Forum Link. , PUMA spokesman Will Bower told the Huffington Post's OffTheBus that the plan at that point was primarily to send a message to the Democratic Party that the primary election process was deeply flawed and anti-democratic and to send that message by working to defeat Obama in the fall. A coordinated effort to help Hillary Clinton win the nomination after she had conceded seemed all but off the table. Obama's recent controversial positions and the deep dissatisfaction that has resulted among many progressive Obama supporters has apparently opened a window for the reluctant Democrats Obama has been trying intermittently and with mixed results to woo since the long season of primary voting wrapped up -- when Clinton suspended but never officially ended her campaign.

[WiseOne]

Sheesh, Oh yea, I can see that happening...NOT. IF Hillary was, somehow, to steal the nomination from Obama now, there would be OUTRAGE in the streets!

[Herb Schaffler]

I don't think it will happen either. My big concern right now is that Obama will pick her as his running mate. I don't think it will happen either, but then you never know. I think Obama has probably made some kind of deal with her, otherwise, I don't think she would be helping him the way she is. I hope at the most, he's only offered her a cabinet post and not the vice-presidency.

Regarding the latest on a possible VP choice for Obama:

Adviser: Clinton Not Being Vetted By Obama VP Team

By [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This No Hillary For President Forum Link. | The Hillary Project



FOX NEWS - Hillary Clinton’s former communications director told FOX News she is not actively being vetted by Barack Obama’s running-mate search team — but he said that doesn’t mean she’s been overlooked.
The two former rivals have been on the fundraising trail for the past two days, appealing to donors and emphasizing that after a divisive primary battle the two are united in their quest to elect the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.
Left open is the question of whether Obama has reconciled with Clinton to a point where he would invite her on the ticket — and whether he thinks he needs to do so to win.
“I’m not aware of any formal (vetting) process,” Howard Wolfson told FOX News Friday morning.
“But, you know, Hillary Clinton has been vetted during the last 18 months,” he added. “The Obama campaign is obviously very familiar with her record and background. She’s in many respects the most vetted person in America over the last 30 years, so I think that they probably have a pretty good sense of a lot of the information they need to make a decision about her.”
Wolfson, who is also a FOX New contributor, told “Hannity & Colmes” Thursday night that “it’s very difficult to predict” whether Obama would ask her to join the ticket, but said “she’d be a huge asset. … I think she’d be a great addition.”
He indicated she would accept the position if asked. Wolfson also told “Hannity & Colmes” that, to his knowledge, she has not been invited into the vetting process.
Obama stirred speculation Wednesday when he made an unscheduled stop at the Washington law firm of search-team member Eric Holder, and later flew to New York fundraisers with Clinton and his other top vetter, Caroline Kennedy.

Word has leaked of at least one other potential running mate.
Former White House hopeful and Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd indicated Wednesday he has been approached by the campaign.
“There’s been some inquiries, yeah,” Dodd said. “They ask for a lot of stuff. I’ll leave it there.”
Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton and Dodd’s Senate office declined comment Thursday.
Dodd, 64, is a five-term senator with a lengthy foreign policy resume. A fluent Spanish-speaker, Dodd served in the Peace Corps and has had a strong interest in Latin American affairs throughout his career. A longtime member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he’s been able to wield a heavy influence on U.S. involvement in the region.
Recently, Dodd, who chairs the Senate Banking Committee, has struggled with allegations that he got cut-rate mortgages from a leading offender in the subprime mortgage meltdown.
Amid speculation about potential vice presidential candidates, some have refused to comment while others have been coy.
On Wednesday, Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri shook her head and cut off a question about whether Obama or his team had asked her for documents to review. “I’m not going to talk about it,” she said.
Responding to the same question, Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius issued a statement, saying: “The decision and timetable for the best person to help Sen. Obama lead the country is entirely up to him. All of us who support Sen. Obama have been asked to direct questions about his choice for vice president to the campaign.”
A few others indicated they hadn’t been approached, including Delaware Sen. Joe Biden. He said he is not seeking the job but also indicated he couldn’t turn it down if asked. Still, he said: “I made it clear to him and everybody else, I never worked for anybody in my life. I got here when I was 29. I never had a boss. I don’t know how I’d handle it.”
Freshman Sen. Ken Salazar of Colorado said he had not been approached.
Recently, others thought to be on Obama’s list have indicated they lack interest in the job. Virginia Sen. Jim Webb issued a statement Monday that said he had told Obama he intended to remain in the Senate and “under no circumstances will I be a candidate for vice president.”
Former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner reiterated Tuesday, in an interview with Washingtonpost.com, that he is not interested in being Obama’s running mate.
Wolfson told FOX News Friday, ” I think the Obama campaign is likely casting a wide net, at least initially.”
Source: [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This No Hillary For President Forum Link.

Posted on Saturday, July 12, 2008 at 3:23 pm

[Herb Schaffler]

2 million angry Democrats reject Obama? Raise $10 million for Clinton campaign debt urge her return

By [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This No Hillary For President Forum Link. | The Hillary Project



[LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This No Hillary For President Forum Link.
More than two million angry Democrats are rejecting Sen. Barack Obama as the likely Democratic nominee for the presidency this year, according to a new protest organization.


"I hate to use this word but it's fascist, and that's the approach they're taking to silence any Hillary Clinton supporters," Will Bower, co-founder of PUMA/Just Say No Deal, an exploding coalition of voters who say they have raised $10 million in just days to pay down Clinton's campaign debt.
"Barack Obama wants to give his acceptance speech in a stadium because he intends to minimize any pro-Hillary supporter dissent. It's not because he wants to include more people. He knows that if they pull any shenanigans at convention, the Hillary delegates will walk out, and they don't want that to be seen or heard. They're bringing as many Obama supporters as they can to fill that stadium. It's fascism," he said.
The voters who still are supporting Clinton are doing everything they can to make sure that doesn't happen, raising an estimated $10 million since Independence Day to retire her debt.

Nearly 18 million people voted for Hillary Clinton in the 2008 presidential primaries and many of them believe their candidate was cheated out of being the Democratic nominee for president.

Now more than two million, based on donation and other records, are determined to protest the nominating process and push for an open convention in Denver this August.

"The seeds of discontent for the birth of the PUMA/Just Say No Deal movement were planted during Barack's poor performances at the debates, the media assault on Clinton after Iowa, Obama's arrogance on the campaign trail, and the DNC's selective application of its own rules," Bower explained.

"We said we are not falling in line just because Obama and (David) Axelrod and the DNC were saying 'All right, this is over, let's all get behind Barack Obama.' There are plenty of us out here saying, 'No this is not over. You have treated us very unfairly and in fact, anti-democratically,'" he said.

Bower said Hillary supporters were so incensed with the DNC's action they wrote about it at their blogsites. The issue went viral, spreading rapidly across the Internet. One irate blogger came up with the acronym PUMA after blogging "Party Unity, My A**." The abbreviation eventually evolved into the puma cat logo used at multiple sites.


Barack Obama

It took only days for PUMA and dozens of other grassroots organizations and political activists to discover one another and convene a conference call. They agreed to band together and call the movement Just Say No Deal.

"We formed this coalition to give people time to say 'Look, everything is still on the table. You still have months before November to make this decision' " Bower explained.

PUMA/Just Say No Deal now represents and gives voice to more than 230 grassroots organizations, blogs and millions of self- professed PUMAs intent on one mission: NOBAMA!

"On June 8th the coalition was born and within 24 hours we were on Fox News," Bower said. Since then, he and several other coalition members have done dozens of television, radio and print interviews. And they've met with the Republican presumptive nominee, Sen. John McCain and his campaign advisor Carly Fiorina.

"We felt reassured after that meeting that come November, we'd be voting for McCain, but we still haven't made that choice. We want him to work for our vote," Bower said.

PUMA/Just Say No Deal members are pushing varying agendas and voting strategies, but the factions are united in their unwavering decision to not "fall in line" in supporting Barack Obama. For many of the disenfranchised Democrats, the choice will be John McCain. For others, it will be a third party candidate, a write-in, or no vote at all.

"A lot of us still want Hillary to get the nomination, but we all agree that none of us want Obama to be the next president," Bower said.

"We're letting the Democratic National Committee and other party leaders know that PUMA/Just Say No Deal members are serious. We're not going to take this lightly and we're prepared to vote for John McCain if need be."

Bower said he believes his group is creating an impact with the Democratic National Committee.

"They are worried. They saw these past few weeks how much money we're still raising for Hillary Clinton. Originally they said 'Hillary has until the convention to pay off her debt if she wants to be on the roll call.' Well, then we started making money for her. And then they moved it up to July 15th. So we started making a lot of money for her."

"We started an initiative just before the 4th of July to raise money for Hillary, and so far we've raised approximately $10 million. Sources tell us that's less than $5 million away from being in the black. By this weekend Hillary's debt will be finished."

Bower makes it clear that Sen. Clinton has not asked the organization to do anything. "We're doing this on our own. We don't want the DNC to use her debt as a strong-arm tactic to keep her or her supporters from having a voice at the convention. All of us are contributing what we can. None of us want Barack Obama to be the next president."

Coalition members donate in increments of $20.08. "That way they know it's from us," Bower explained.

It's not just the money giving the DNC angst.

"Some of their superstars are now having to spend all of their time addressing us specifically," Bower said. “Donna Brazile's (superdelegate and DNC rules committee member) job now is fighting the PUMAs. Ed Rendell created a group called Hound to address the PUMAs. So some of their best people are having to devote all of their time and energy just to address us."

Money raised by PUMAs also doesn't go to Obama's campaign or the DNC coffers.

Bower also pointed to polls indicating shrinking support for Obama.

"CNN did a poll at the beginning of June that showed 1 of every 5 Clinton supporters would not vote for Obama. Well, just one month later that's now 1 in 3. So we're getting our numbers up and we're growing strong. And if the DNC's not worried about us, then they're clueless as to this movement."

They also credit Obama with helping their effort.

"In the last two weeks we've seen Obama go back on his campaign promises – FISA, campaign finance, especially the Iraq war," Bower said.

"There is a movement afoot," Bower confided. "It hasn't hit the ground yet, but we want to target down-ticket Democrats who have been complicit in the DNC's dealings these past few months. You'll probably be hearing more about that soon. Some of Obama's original supporters are leaving him. Eight super-delegates left Obama this week. People are realizing Obama will be a dead weight to them and that's why these eight delegates have switched back over to Hillary's column. And I'm expecting there'll be more to follow."

"He's only the presumptive nominee. And he's doing everything he can, the DNC is doing everything it can, to shove Hillary out of the process when she has received more votes than any primary candidate in history," he said.

The coalition believes the Democrat leadership in Congress is supporting Obama because they want a weakened executive branch and Obama is an inexperienced, manufactured candidate who'll have to rely on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

"Hillary won't do that," Bower assured.
Posted on Saturday, July 12, 2008 at 12:37 pm

[Herb Schaffler]

Clinton Diehards Want Convention Vote

By [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This No Hillary For President Forum Link. | The Hillary Project



By Shawn Zeller
CQ POLITICS - She may have given up, but a few of Hillary Rodham Clinton ’s people haven’t.
The senator from New York is said to be negotiating a respectful presence followed by a graceful exit from next month’s Democratic convention, and last week the party announced that Barack Obama would formally accept the party’s nomination in the stadium built for the Denver Broncos. But there are Clinton supporters clinging to the hope that if her name is placed in nomination and the roll call of the states is conducted, she might — might — still win.
Heidi Li Feldman, a Georgetown University law professor, insists there’s still “no way of predicting” the outcome should there be a fair vote. That’s because Obama has not secured enough pledged delegates to ensure the magic number of 2,118 needed to claim victory; the Illinois senator has gone past that benchmark only with the pledges of about 390 superdelegates — and they can change their minds at any time up to the moment they cast their ballots.
“If they had a meaningful vote, I have no idea who would win,” Feldman says. “But I know that if Sen. Obama were sure he would win, there wouldn’t be a negotiation” about Clinton’s role at the convention.
So Feldman, who says she has raised about $100,000 for Clinton, has turned her prowess to raising money for advertising demanding a convention vote, and she has teamed with a fellow pro-Clinton blogger, Marc Rubin, to form the Denver Group to lobby the Democratic National Committee, much of the staff of which has already moved from Washington to Chicago to work for Obama.

Feldman says she won’t vote for Obama if Clinton doesn’t get a convention vote. Rubin says he might not. Both say they aren’t worried that their efforts will continue to divide Democrats at a time when they should be uniting to take on Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona. In fact, they argue, many Democrats might stay home if they feel Clinton gets short shrift.
“What they have to do is make it possible for people to say to themselves that there was a fair and correct process,” Feldman says.
Source: [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This No Hillary For President Forum Link.

Posted on Monday, July 14, 2008 at 8:29 am

[Corvair]

Originally Posted by Herb Schaffler

...With Senator Clinton, we have a superior, battle-tested, and winning candidate...

This looks like it was written by a beginner who just landed his first job with an advertising agency. Doesn't he know she LOST?

...who is waiting in the wings, ready, and willing to take over...

Now, that sounds like the duplicitous pig we all know and "love"!