They refused to support Obama.

into an anti Obama thing.

It was more of a legend than something real. They did have a web site which lasted all of about 5 months.

Considering James Carville was sporting Pumas at the Dem convention. I doubt he would have done that for a 5 person legend...

Just saying..

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/08/27/carville-wears-pumas-off_n_121782.html

"Officially" it stands for "People United Means Action,' a PAC formed in 2008 in protest of barack obama being nominated by the Democratic party instead of Hillary clinton.

Colliquially it means "Party unity, my ass," signifying the outlook of those involved that "HER TURN!" was more important than the votes and support of Democrats.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People_United_Means_Action

I started hearing it immediately after Obama clinched the nomination in 08. The PAC likely changed the acronym to make it get approved. It did NOT precede Party Unity My Ass.

Can't believe somebody took credit like that. They probably edited the wiki entry.

It was supposed to be a response by disaffected Hillary Clinton supporters in 2008, and for some reason they seemed to think that another female candidate on a major party ticket was just as good as another. This was the giveaway, of course, as the PUMA folks tried to drum up crossover Democratic support for McCain-Palin. Somehow these alleged Democrats weren't counting on the fact that every other Democratic voter could discern the difference between Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin.

Sort of like the difference between a single malt scotch and a butterscotch button candy.

It was a thing.

The race was pretty tight between Obama and Hillary in the primaries. And there were problems with two states primary voting. They moved their primaries ahead of the official dem party schedule and in response the Dem party decided their primary votes would not count. In response the candidates pledged not to campaign in Florida. Clinton came pretty close to violating the pledge if not outright doing so.

Had she been given the full votes of Florida as opposed to the half she ended up getting it would have made the race much closer and possibly within reach of her winning.

There was a lot of anger over that and a feeling from many Clinton supporters that she was being cheated. Thus PUMA was born. Some of the stuff they heaped on Obama was really nasty and I am quite sure Hillary does not look back on those actions from her "supporters" fondly.

I have no doubt there were republicans involved fueling those flames but it was certainly not republican driven. We had quite a few self proclaimed PUMAs here at the time.

On May 31, 2008 at a meeting of the Rules and ByLaws committee of the DNC in DC they changed their own rules and it pissed off a lot of people. Think Donna Brazille.

It was anger at the Democratic Party, not Barack Obama, although pretty much everyone will tell you it was directed at Obama. It was not. On that day the Democratic power brokers acted more like Republicans than Democrats.

I was there.

"No-bama! No-bama"

Since I was told it was a RNC ploy to divide Democrats that didn't work.

I was an Obama supporter from before he ever announced. I voted for Blagojevich for no other reason than he was a Democrat and would appoint Obama's successor. Had there been no Obama, I would have supported Hillary, but there was an Obama.

And now they want to label me a PUMA. It's just so fucking ridiculous!

another Democrat (except Joe Lieberman), so PUMA does not apply to me.

Thanks for the responses everyone!

an ass then, a bigger one now