PUMA update

Andrea Shea King has an interview with Will Bower, co-founder of the dissident Democratic group PUMA/Just Say No Deal:

Nearly 18 million people voted for Hillary Clinton in the 2008 presidential primaries and many of them believe their candidate was cheated out of being the Democratic nominee for president.
Now more than two million, based on donation and other records, are determined to protest the nominating process and push for an open convention in Denver this August. . . .
"We said we are not falling in line just because Obama and (David) Axelrod and the DNC were saying 'All right, this is over, let's all get behind Barack Obama.' There are plenty of us out here saying, 'No this is not over. You have treated us very unfairly and in fact, anti-democratically,'" he said. . . .
"CNN did a poll at the beginning of June that showed 1 of every 5 Clinton supporters would not vote for Obama. Well, just one month later that's now 1 in 3. So we're getting our numbers up and we're growing strong. And if the DNC's not worried about us, then they're clueless as to this movement."

A lot of people have underestimated the Clintons' ability -- or their will -- to cause havoc within the Democratic Party if she was denied the nomination. Part of the reason was that the media tended to portray Obama as the only candidate with enthusiastic grassroots supporters. Bower and the PUMA crowd are a reminder that there still are Hillary fans out there, and that they represent a potential source of trouble for Obama and the DNC.

(Cross-posted at AmSpecBlog.)