Just Say No Deal Coalition Interview on Sirius Radio
Just Say No Deal spokespersons, Will Bower of PUMA and Diane Mantouvalos of HireHeels.com, were on satellite radio today. This is the question and answer part of their interview.
On the show, Will and Diane effectively frame the questions — including “he won, she played negatively, DNC, 50 state campaign, caucus problems, the rules, and switching things in the middle of the game” — that many democrats have about the protest vote movement. They address why we are standing on principle and justice, rather than blindly supporting a Party that went astray.
Will introduced himself at The Confluence yesterday:
Two big things happened to me this year. I became a writer for the Huffington Post *and* I became an administrator for the largest pro-Hillary group on FaceBook (called “Hillary Clinton for President – One Million Strong”), which then had a membership of 27,000 people.
A third big thing happened to me. I met Harriet Christian at the DNC’s RBC hearing. You can read my account of it here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/will-bower/my-evening-with-harriet-c_b_104594.html
I also met someone else that night — “Sista Christian Louboutin” of HireHeels.com. It was Sista who later mentioned me to Diane Mantouvalos and vice versa. HireHeels.com, of course, was the nucleus around which “Just Say NO DEAL” would later be born.
Will describes how Just Say No Deal was quickly formed and caught on fire:
After another member of the FaceBook group (Thuc Nguyen) created some images for us, I took the PUMA / Party Unity My Ass concept to my FaceBook group with the idea of having it be a mascot and a call to arms…. and it caught fire there *immediately*. Within a few days, “The National” contacted us for an interview, which you can read about here:
http://thenational.ae/article/20080607/FOREIGN/763911149
Meanwhile, Diane was preparing the conference call that would give birth to “Just Say No Deal”. Being that she knew of me through “Sista” and through The Huffington Post and through the PUMA article in The National, I was invited to participate.
Press coverage and an angry electorate that felt swindled made for a quick launch:
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/06/13/1138240.aspx#comments
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/06/13/a-clinton-backer-turns-to-mccain/
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/256106
http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0608/McCain_mingles_with_Clinton_supporters.html
* Hat tip to commenter Henry Dubb for posting interview link on The Confluence. And to the Confluence who published Will’s intro letter, excerpted here. Thanks to Will and Diane for their organizing wizardry and for articulately stating our concerns to the public.
Lady Boomer NYC 