Remember my rule?

The one about me saying whatever the hell I feel like on my own blog? I'm about to invoke it now and complain about those Hillary Clinton supporters who are either voting McCain or staying home on Election Day. If you are one of those, I strongly suggest you stop reading now, because you really won't like what I'm about to say. If you insist on reading further, you are not allowed to get angry with me for reading what I urged you not to read.

(Keep in mind that in this post I'm referring only to those Clinton supporters who call themselves or who could be called PUMAs, which is idiot for "Party Unity My Ass." If you're a Clinton supporter who's not a fool, then you're probably planning to vote for Obama and you're safe to read this post.)

I've spent a good deal of time over the last few months debating PUMAs in online forums, and I am convinced that their objections to Barack Obama as the Democratic nominee are either dumb or disingenuous.

The Dumb

1. Hillary Clinton won the popular vote. (Only when you count the votes in a very selective way. In any case, the Democratic primary is decided on delegates, not popular vote. )
2. Those caucus states shouldn't matter...they're not democratic! (Maybe not, but them's the rules to which all contenders - including Senator Clinton - agreed at the outset.)
3. There was sexism in the race, and that's not fair. (Yeah, and Obama had to deal with racism. Life's tough that way. Deal with it.)

The Disingenuous

1. Hillary won the states Democrats need to win, like Ohio and Florida. (She did...against another Democrat. There is zero evidence that she would have done so against a Republican.)
2. Experience is what matters most. (If that's so, why didn't the PUMAs back McCain from the start?)
3. Obama couldn't close the deal. (I don't even know what that means, but I know it was lifted verbatim from Mark Penn, one of Hillary Clinton's spin doctors.)

It's sad that we won't have a female president in January, yes, but exciting that we might have one who's African-American, but of course the PUMAs can't see that. They're so blinded by rage, bitterness and resentment that they've almost completely lost their grip on reality. They've even begun to tell themselves that John McCain, whose voting record on abortion earned a big zero from NARAL, is some kind of moderate and isn't interested in overturning Roe vs. Wade. That's what we're dealing with here. They've even started to resent Hillary Clinton herself for endorsing Obama and asking them to follow her lead, which proves that their support was never about Hillary Clinton's agenda, policy positions, or qualifications. The PUMAs wanted their way, and now that it's clear they won't get it, they're going to throw the biggest, brattiest tantrum the Democratic Party has ever seen. They're going to do their level best to live up to the stereotype of women as irrational, emotion-ruled weepers who should never have been entrusted with the vote. And here I thought that electing a woman to the Oval Office was about breaking down stereotypes, not justifying them.

In the end, Americans may cast their votes as they wish, and if PUMAs want to waste theirs on some kind of imaginary revenge fantasy...well, no one can stop them. However, when President McCain signs the next abortion restriction or nominates another Scalia or Thomas to SCOTUS, I don't want to hear women's rights PUMAs shriek, because they'll have helped make it happen.