But, for a small subset of Clinton supporters, Obama supporters, particularly if they were young and female, were subject to all sorts of accusations of nefarious motives. Robin Morgan penned an unfortunate piece suggesting that Obama’s support was rooted solely in misogyny, characterizing his female supporters as “young women eager to win male approval by showing they’re not feminists (at least not the kind who actually threaten the status quo), who can’t identify with a woman candidate because she is unafraid of eeueweeeu yucky power.” The fact that many of those women liked Clinton was ignored. Morgan’s candidate was losing. Itmust be because forces were aligning against her unfairly and not because Obama was running a better campaign.
Clinton supporters who thought like this named themselves “PUMAs,” which stood for “Party Unity My Ass.” They were a small subset of Clinton supporters who became so sure of the dark motives of Obama supporters that some ended up turning their backs on the Democrats entirely. But their real impact was during the primary season, where they left an indelible impression, especially online. No doubt the PUMAs wanted Clinton to win, but their anger and bitterness ended up reflecting badly on their candidate of choice, especially in light of Obama’s upbeat, optimism-based campaign.
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