PUMA De-Fanged on Hardball

My friend, Denise Williams, had this assessment of PUMA's appearance on MSNBC tonight:

All it takes is one decent interviewer to cut through the nonsense. PUMApac and Just Say No Deal do not fare well under scrutiny outside of the fawning treatment they received at Fox News. The Washington DC Denver planning committee was a bust - see more here. I have a strong feeling that by the end of the month Darragh Murphy and Will Bower won't be getting too many more invitations to appear on national cable news programs- even from Fox. The bigger PUMA sites have devolved into rampant, crazy conspiracy theories and wild hopes of Hillary somehow still capturing the nomination.

Time to call the Humane Society. Roar.

Here's the video, followed by a little bit of behind-the-scenes deliciousness. Note the 2:20 mark.



Wow. Watching that makes me wonder if I was overthinking this whole thing.

So, that reporter Shuster was referring to at the 2:20 mark? That was me. The quote he threw at Darragh and Will was from my story. Yes, I still get way too excited about stuff like that.

As Christina at Yes to Democracy notes, she let me know about the appearance, and asked if I could put her in touch with someone at MSNBC. I did, and we both provided them with the research and reporting that we've each done on PUMAPAC, and PUMA.

It doesn't look like Shuster needed the help, as his bemused look alone seemed to refute their best arguments. As Denise noted, PUMAs don't do too well unless they're with Fox. It kind of reminds me of those riddles where you have to get across the river with a bunch of animals and a comically tiny boat.

I'm glad someone finally got to interview them in a setting where they actually have to answer follow-up questions, although I must say I was also a little impressed with the job Neil Cavuto did with them.

I have actually spent the better part of my week talking to Democrats who are supporting McCain, but are honest about it, and that's a whole new can of worms. I will be writing more about that in the days ahead, but I will say this now: No matter how wrong I might think their solution is (voting for John McCain), they are right about the Democratic Party holding them hostage with Roe and taking their votes for granted.

I spoke for about 2 hours with Regina Stern, the woman in the picture from the "Citizens For McCain" website, and had long talks with several of the founders of The New Agenda (a new group dedicated to furthering a variety of women's issues "beyond Roe v Wade"), and I learned a lot. I also came away wondering how I could agree with them on so much, and from the gut, yet reach such opposite conclusions. It is fascinating, and I look forward to exploring it.

Hat tip to David Knowles and the sensitive souls at Rumproast for this morsel about the big PUMA conference that I almost drove to DC to cover:

The overwhelming and unstoppable PUMA coalition that Bowers and other selected-not-elected leaders have repeatedly claimed numbers in the 2-2.5 million members range could only get together sixty people for the "conference" and, because they didn't meet the 250 registrant requirement imposed by the Wardman, they had to move the conference to ... get this ... the Country Inn next to Dulles Airport in Sterling, VA.

I strongly recommend you go and read the whole thing if you like your snark with relish on it, as Kevin K. makes a 5 course meal out of it.

Even though it is gratifying to see the hypocrisy exposed, I can't fully share their glee, because I've met people just like the ones who believe in PUMA and PUMAPAC, and I really like them. They deserve better.