PUMA vs. HOUND: The Acronym War
By Pat Racimora on July 2, 2008 at 9:58 PM in Current Affairs
I like and respect Governor Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania. Few worked as diligently as he on behalf of Hillary Clinton.
Now he is reaching out to PUMA (“Party Unity My Ass”) members and those many other Democrats who feel disenfranchised and disillusioned but are not so anxious to wander back into the party they have grown to distrust. Governor Rendell implores PUMA members to join his new group, HOUND (Hillary-Obama-United-Not-Divided).
Rendell concedes that the Democratic Party’s nominating procedure and the caucus system are highly flawed and unfair and must be changed. This is good stuff, but many of the disaffected will believe it only when they see it fully implemented.
But then the good Governor falls sound asleep at the switch. The parting sentence of the HOUND credo is, “While the PUMA may be more swift and athletic, the HOUND is smarter and more perceptive.”
Governor Rendell would have been wise to do a little more research on hounds before embracing the acronym. Hounds are actually the least intelligent of dogs, ranking at the very bottom. I can attest to this first hand. My Russian Wolfhound (Borzoi) was a lovely creature, but dumb as a pumpkin.
And dogs, after all, are bred to follow the top dog’s orders.
Big cats, on the other hand, are not only swift and athletic. They are self-reliant, independent, resourceful, and answer to no one. Even domestic cats are crafty and show a strong will.
So, despite the acronym and image challenges, if the idea behind HOUND is to put a very intelligent dog up against a puma, Rendell’s group would be much better off with POODLE.























