Remember last week, when I mocked the PUMA jokers, how they claimed they had raised $10 million for Clinton in July?

We PUMAs have generated a lot of income to help pay down Hillary’s debt. We have it on good authority that our push, our July 4th push, generated from as little as six million and up to ten million dollars to pay off her debt.

Neal Cavuto even gave them a big slot on his show, with the chyron shouting:

BOWER: RAISED MORE THAN $10M FOR CLINTON’S DEBT

All the while, PUMA head Will Bower boasted on the show that thanks to their efforts, Clinton's debt would be "finished".

Like everything that has ever come out of those closet Republicans' mouths, that claim was laughable. For a group of people who claim to speak for millions, they've proven utterly inept at delivering anything of tangible benefit. Poor Hillary Clinton herself has rejected their efforts, yet the PUMAs continue embarrassing themselves in her name.

Well, today brings more of that embarrassment:

Hillary Clinton whittled down her presidential campaign debt by $1.3 million in July, and presumptive nominee Barack Obama chipped in to help [...]

Despite suspending her campaign in June, Clinton raised $2 million in July.

Oops. That's far short of $6-10 million. But it gets worse:

Via Nashville 21 we tracked down the Hillary Clinton for President FEC filing for July contributions.  Check out the "contributions by date" info for the beginning of the month, when the PUMA/Just Say No Deal coalition was allegedly pulling in six to ten million dollars for Hillary.  I’ve included the entire July 4th weekend:

DATE	SUM
July 01, 2008	30,979.56
July 02, 2008	19,624.72
July 03, 2008	9,839.16
July 04, 2008	6,446.36
July 05, 2008	15,919.73
July 06, 2008	2,792.90

That’s a grand total of $85,602.43 for July 1st through July 6th, not even remotely close to the PUMAs’ "conservative" estimate of $6 million dollars (it’s 1.4% of that claim, 0.86% of the $10 million figure) and that’s not even accounting for the fact that all of the donations during that time period didn’t come from self-identified PUMAs.

The PUMAs are a bunch of attention whoring cranks. Unfortunately, the traditional media will continue giving them attention because there's nothing more exciting than a "Democrats divided" story.

In 2004, when the real Democrats who supported Howard Dean were defeated, we didn't sulk and embarrass Howard Dean with this kind of crap. No, we continued organizing. We got Dean elected chair of the Democratic Party, while Democracy for America continued its organizing efforts around the country. Heck, even the Kucinich crowd, as mocked as they were in more mainstream party circles, focused on organizing and created Progressive Democrats of America.

If the PUMAs actually cared about their party and about Hillary Clinton, they would honor her by creating a grassroots organization designed to promote her agenda like DFA or PDA. But they don't care about their party, and they clearly don't give a shit about what Clinton wants.

Which is all fine and dandy, but to the traditional media who will eagerly give them a platform next week, they should know that all they're merely doing is paying heed to a group of delusional cranks.

Okay.

I'm trying to stay calm, deep breath and all . . .

 !!!!!!!!   BUT   !!!!!!!!

One of the weirdest but most universally accepted myths this summer is the argument that fear of seeing Roe vs. Wade overturned will bring Hillary Clinton's primary voters into the Obama fray come November.  How can we make such a blanket assessment?  And isn't it rather sexist to boot?  Hillary Clinton's supporters are by no means exclusively female and their politics do not begin and end with abortion rights.  In fact, the demographics of the states and regions where Hillary was victorious suggest that the abortion issue will produce incredibly little political dividend for Obama.

John McCain is self-destructing - it is a good day to not talk about veepstakes. So I was going to write a fine diary, but something just came up.

Wasn’t Obama’s VP choice supposed to be announced on Wednesday or this morning at the latest?  To take advantage of the news cycle and so as not get lost in the weekend news which no one apparently pays any attention to.

So what happened?  What might have happened?  Here’s what I think—and hope:

Most people knew this was going to be a tough fight. So why, at the first sign of vulnerability for the Obama campaign, is everybody crying out for Hillary?

Renoir's great diary  yeterday is more reason we should not trust the Hillary supporters. I will go one step further and say we cannot trust what she will say in her speech next Tuesday evening.

What with Puma (party unity my a--),the warnings by Randi Rhodes and Lowery about Rothschild,Super delegate Millstone,Fiorina,etc we may be setting ourselves up for some highly visible negative trashing of our candidate.Throw in the fringe MSM representatives such as Hannity and the traditions of Dem. Conventions. A volatile incident could explode.

Let's imagine the cunning Hillary emphasizing her own late campaign more than the current general election. There will be a very large contingent of her supporters on the floor and they start marching around the hall in spontaneous demonstrations with raised signs. What if these signs splash derogatory comments about Barack Obama to the tv audience of millions?

Here is some video of the PUMA spokespeople lying:

And remember Will Bower's "we don't need Obama- we have it," bull? Yes, of course you do, it was THAT laughable.

More on his money lies:

• Will Bower's millions of dollars myth debunked
• More on Will Bower and his scam
• More lies from Will Bower

Well, now we can OFFICIALLY say that Will Bower was FULL OF IT! How can pumas sit back and allow this man to lie while they kiss his feet?! Ugh, I suppose when you're buds with Andy Martin and Jerome Corsi there is no level of stooping that you won't go to.

Just got the text!

Picked this up off Drudge Report/Politico/The Crypt:

In an unusual move, Hillary Clinton's staff is creating a 40-member "whip team" at the Denver Democratic convention to ensure that her supporters don't engage in embarrassing anti-Obama demonstrations during the floor vote on her nomination, according to people familiar with the planning.

The team, which is being organized by longtime Clinton staffer Craig Smith, is working in conjunction with Obama's floor organizers to help foster the image of a unified front during a roll-call process Clinton herself has described as an emotional "catharsis" for her disappointed supporters.

"If people get down there on the floor and want to start blowing kazoos and making a scene we want to make sure we've got people who stand in front of them with Obama signs," said a person involved in the planning.

A little more below.

Hi folks.  I haven't written too many diaries on Daily Kos, but I wanted to enter a plea today for you help and suggestions.  I have a good friend, we'll call him "Dave", to protect his identity.  He is a relatively new American citizen and is originally from Indonesia--very smart, entrepreneur, and a genuinely nice guy.

Anyway, I sent "Dave" an email along with several friends, earlier this week inviting them to a Happy Hour tonight for the Equality Fairfax organization, on whose Board of Directors I sit, here in Fairfax County, VA.    He wrote me back and included a question as to whether there would be "anything Obama" there.  I wrote back that no, this was not an Obama event, although I am vigorously supporting him, however.

What happened next really surprised me.  "Dave" sent me back an email that really disturbed me!  Below is the email.  

Thursday is the day.   Networks and outlets are planning their weekend format and preparing for Sunday.  This is the best day to make an announcement that'll allow for the Democrats to show off their Vice-Presidential candidate before(and during) the convention in Denver.  Yet as the hours go by, there has been no early-morning announcement.  Thursday would be crucial to introducing the country to a candidate that they may not know everything about.

Unless that candidate has a famous name.

This will be a very short diary because I have to go.   But there are rumors (I just heard it on CNN) that Obama may announce his VP choice today.   I have been thinking about it and my opinion is that the best choice for Obama will be Hillary.   She would be certainly better than Bayh or Biden and she will unify the party better.   And she would certainly be good in attacking McCain.

You know I try and remain optimistic.
Everyone says not to speak ill of the Clintons for purposes of unity. Well I cant hold my tonuge any longer. HRC doesnt really want to unify.

You know its one thing to claim unity to a group of Obama supporters...but what is she doing to bring her supporters over?

Heres the latest:

First of all, let me say that my best wishes are with Congresswoman's Jones's family.  She was a true Democrat and her leadership will be missed.

Before I get into VP talk, I must say I am disgusted by the lack of class on dailykos.  I thought higher of the people here, and I suppose it is fair to say any victories Democrats achieve is in spite of and not because of your so called support.  Aside from the admin and the rare member, this site is made up of juvenile amateurs.  Sad, truly.

As far as VP news goes I was 100 percent wrong, Evan Bayh was not rolled out today, but he is still the favorite, and I am not the only one to say so.  The page run by Time Magazine also reports similar conventional wisdom.  

Sorry everyone - all signs point to a Clinton announcement on Saturday in Illinois.  Everyone else is writing VP diaries, so I had to write mine.  Today Obama was heard saying "he" when referring to his vice president.  Howard Fineman said if he had to bet his life on it, "it's Joe Biden."  But who else would you need to wait to announce until the last minute like this?  Who else could dominate a week of coverage and overshadow anybody that McCain picks?  Who else has already been given two nights of the convention?  I'm sorry, but I smell unity at the convention...

I think this kinda goes into the stranger than fiction files:

In an unusual move, Hillary Clinton's staff is creating a 40-member "whip team" at the Denver Democratic convention to ensure that her supporters don't engage in embarrassing anti-Obama demonstrations during the floor vote on her nomination, according to people familiar with the planning.

Politico

Yeah, I know I'm breaking ground with a vp diary, but we've been hashing it out in our house.  I dreamed of Al Gore harnessing up again, but I think it will be Hillary and I think that's not a bad choice.

There are several reasons to argue that Hillary will be VP.