PUMAs are having all the fun!

By the end of her presidential campaign, Hillary Clinton was firing on all cylinders. She had jettisoned (too late!) the idiotic Mark Penn and was at last making a compelling case for herself. Even as a corrupt Democratic Party Establishment and a savagely gleeful media were evicting her from the race, her supporters were embracing and internalizing a vision of the country under her leadership. (They had already concluded that Barack Obama was an extremely weak candidate, both politically and substantively.)

Meanwhile, Obama himself seemed to have fallen under the influence of Mark Penn's evil twin. His campaign had essentially adopted the "inevitability" strategy that proved so catastrophic for Hillary. Loyal Obamabots (when they weren't trashing the Clintons) did little but pound away at the arcane details of the Delegate Math in an attempt to make Hillary go away. The strategy worked, but not without a cost.

Euphoric (if ungracious) in victory, Obama supporters looked forward to getting back to spreading their progressive message of Hope and Change to the broader electorate. Alas, Barack had other plans. In accordance with his "post-partisan" general election strategy, he immediately engaged in a frenzy of sellouts and flip-flops which, had they come from Hillary Clinton, would have led to her being tarred and feathered on the major blogs all the way to Denver.

Obamabots might have taken their medicine without complaint if their man's numbers had remained strong, but as they watched all traces of his Excellent European Adventure vanish into the polling ether, and as they now see John McCain's heretofore pitifully unfocused campaign come out of its stupor, they're beginning to get restless. Some have become supplicants:

. . .You stand today at the head of a movement that believes deeply in the change you have claimed as the mantle of your campaign. The millions who attend your rallies, donate to your campaign and visit your website are a powerful testament to this new movement’s energy and passion. . . .We recognize that compromise is necessary in any democracy. We understand that the pressures brought to bear on those seeking the highest office are intense. But retreating from the stands that have been the signature of your campaign will weaken the movement whose vigorous backing you need in order to win and then deliver the change you have promised.

(Can a sternly worded letter be far behind?)

Others are just grouchy:

So frankly, Obama should be blowing McCain out of the water. Congressional approval ratings are hovering at 9% and Bush is in the high twenties and has been for years, so this is a realigning period. That Obama is in the high forties and McCain is in the low forties seems to be leaving a lot of votes on the table. That might change, I'm not making an argument about what the campaign should or should not do, as they have a strategy and it's more important for them to execute their strategy effectively than to do what outsiders in the cheap seats think they should do. I'm just pointing out why it feels so awful for movement progressives.

Everybody's very polite, but clearly the thrill is gone, and it's not coming back. Obama supporters are looking at three months of trench warfare against the Republicans, and all they they can really talk about anymore is the awfulness of John McCain.

No wonder PUMAs get so many Obamabots into a lather. Quixotic as their cause may be, they don't have to fake anything.