Democrashield.com

In the past month, Hillary Clinton dropped out of the Democratic Primary, endorsed Barack Obama and has begun campaigning to get him elected the next President of the United States.

Yet since then, a number of groups have popped up claiming to be made up of of Hillary supporters, yet pledging to do everything they can to defeat Barack Obama.

This doesn’t make any sense. If you were a Hillary supporter, you believe in things like providing more Americans health care, ending the war, fixing the economy, solving global warming, restoring America’s military strength and reputation abroad, etc. On these issues, Clinton and Obama’s positions are nearly identical; defeating Obama would mean electing McCain, who represents the same failed policies that we Democrats have been fighting since 2001.

Yet, these supposed Hillary supporters–for some reason–would rather see a President McCain than a President Obama. They love their candidate enough where they can’t bring themselves to vote for the candidate who defeated her, yet they don’t love her enough to follow her lead and support Barack Obama.

Well, that’s because the founders of these groups aren’t Hillary supporters; they’re not even Democrats. Take Darragh Murphy, the founder of PUMA PAC. Rumproast did some digging on Murphy, and turned up some interesting facts:

Darragh…describes herself as a lifelong Democrat who thinks Obama is an “illegal candidate” and invites others to join her who have been “disheartened, discouraged, or disgusted by the actions and inactions, the divisiveness and discriminations of the Democratic party, the press, the mainstream blogs, and many political leaders.”

Now, if you search for Darragh Murphy in the FEC database, this is what you find:

MURPHY, DARRAGH C.
CARLISLE VALLEY, MA 01741
HOMEMAKER

MCCAIN, JOHN S. VIA MCCAIN 2000 INC
	02/28/2000	500.00	20990076175

Yeah, that’s right. This supposed lifelong Democrat’s only political contribution in the FEC’s database is a $500 donation to John McCain in 2000.

Rumproast published her response:

Thank you as well for reminding me that I DID EVERYTHING I COULD in 2000 to prevent GEORGE BUSH from becoming the Republican nominee, including donating money to McCain’s campaign and voting for him in the Republican primary here in Massachusetts because I was confident that my hero, AL GORE, would win the primary for the Democrats.

I then went on to vote for Al in November of course. And WE ALL know how THAT turned out.

Now, if you were a lifelong Democrat who thought Al Gore was going to win 2000, why would you bother getting involved in the GOP primary? Why would you donate $500–a sizable sum–just for the sake of sinking a potential nominee for the other party?

Plus, in 2000, McCain was seen as far bigger threat to the Democrats than George Bush–Bush was a little-known Governor from Texas, while McCain was, at the time, known for being a reform-minded moderate and a Vietnam war hero to boot.

Also note that Murphy didn’t give a penny to her “hero” Al Gore–not in the primary, and not in the general, not at any time.

Also, note that she says she voted for McCain in the primary–last time I checked, Massachusetts has a closed primary. You have to either be a registered Republican or not registered with any party to vote–now, why wouldn’t a self-described “lifelong Democrat” be registered as a Democrat?

Face it, Darragh Murphy’s story doesn’t hold up. The facts say she’s a diehard McCain supporter, manipulating people’s emotions to trick disaffected Democrats into voting against their beliefs. The vast majority of groups like PUMA–supposedly made up of Hillary supporters who are refusing to support Obama–are nothing but GOP dirty tricks.

Unfortunately for them, we Democrats are too smart to fall for GOP manipulations; the quicker these Republican phonies are exposed, the easier it will be to bring everyone together to defeat John McCain and to end George Bush’s failed policies.