Denver: Watching Senator Clinton’s speech at “The PUMA Den”
DownloadThe PUMA Den watches Hillary Clinton’s speech, August 26, 2008
DENVER — Senator Hillary Clinton gave a rousing speech tonight, as near as I could tell. My back was to the screen as I held a video camera on the crowd of PUMAs watching. From what I could hear, she spoke naturally, as if she were talking to friends (no teleprompter stumbles), paid off a nice emotional arc over the course of it, recognized the accomplishments of President Clinton, repeatedly told people that voting for Senator Barack Obama would be necessary to avoid the consequences of electing Republican Senator John McCain, and left the stage to waving signs and raucous cheers. OK, that I saw.
But it wasn’t enough to convince the folks I was with at “The PUMA Den” — a bail bond office repurposed for the evening.
The big-screen TV was tuned to Fox News, which obliged the crowd, showing polls with McCain on top (to cheers!) and cutting away in the middle of former Virginia governor Mark Warner’s speech for a commercial break that featured the latest ad for McCain, using Senator Clinton’s own words! (Big cheers here, too.)
Once the speech began, there was lots of yelling for Clinton herself, and whoops at any mention of John McCain — this from self-described lifelong Democrats and feminists — and boos and hissing at any mention of Barack or Michelle Obama. This is wounded anger.
There were some tears. They love Senator Clinton profoundly. It’s hard to overstate just how much. But despite Clinton’s entreaties, only one PUMA at the Den said she’d even consider voting for Senator Obama come November. The rest said they intend to skip the polls or vote for McCain — a message to the Democratic National Committee and Howard Dean, whom they hold responsible for squashing Clinton’s shot at the White House.
To PUMA members planning to vote for McCain, Think of these two words: Supreme Court. If you don’t get that you are not true supporters of Hillary’s, no matter how much you claim to admire her. You seem more like fanatics who don’t care whom they hurt as long as they get their way.
Comment by Georgia Lockwood — August 27, 2008 @ 6:24 pm |
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Georgia:
Thanks for your comment! I actually raised this very issue with the folks I was speaking with last night. You can hear one of their responses in the video above. In a nutshell, the woman I spoke with felt that when people brought up “the Supreme Court” to the PUMA PAC, it’s code for “Roe v. Wade,” and she told me she’s confident that American women would never let Roe be overturned. She seemed awfully sure of this. Make of this what you will.
Adam
Comment by Adam Hirsch — August 27, 2008 @ 7:25 pm |
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Did the women you spoke with feel that there was ANYTHING that Hillary and John McCain had in common, position wise, besides not being Barak Obama? Was the talk of voting for McCain COMPLETELY retaliatory? I still can’t believe that their passion for a candidate could be so blind to his/her stand on issues when there is so much at stake.
Comment by Kathleen — August 28, 2008 @ 1:53 pm |
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at the risk of sounding over the top…I can’t help but feel ANYONE who goes to McCain because they were for Hillary (which I was/am a Hillary person) was NEVER really for her…I ponder…are they pals of Rove and if Hillary had gotten the nomination we would have the same mantra going on from the Obama camp??? things that make me go hmmmmm…
Comment by Rachel — August 29, 2008 @ 12:07 pm |
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