If Obama is Carter 2...then Hil runs just like Kennedy. This type of talk won't stop. I think these stories get planted or fixed to begin a movement...either way it's out there to send a message. Its either to get Hil to run or get Obama to pull an LBJ.
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20110823/OPINION01/308230010/-1/SPORTS09/Steffen-Schmidt-Some-Dems-think-unthinkable-Not-ObamaI recently had drinks with respected senior Democrats in New Hampshire. They were Barack Obama supporters in 2008 and now have serious buyer’s remorse.
They were alarmed at the lack of leadership, which they feel Obama showed while he still had a substantial majority in the House and Senate. “Steffen, that health care monstrosity used up all his goodwill and has scared the crap out of voters. They just don’t understand what’s in there and he has done nothing to explain it.’
They were unanimous in blaming him for the avalanche of Republicans and the tea party movement ascendance that has paralyzed Washington. “Obama never stepped up to the plate and gave the Democrats a vision of how to retain power,” one said. “In 2010 he just walked away. He’s worse than Bill Clinton. It’s all about the Big O.”
Another comment that stuck with me was the fear that his low and still slipping poll numbers spell doom.
“Steffen, have you read Politico on Pete de Fazio’s comments on Oregon?” I had not.
Here it what Politico wrote about one of the brightest liberal Democrats:
“Saying there’s no ‘fight’ in President Barack Obama, a House Democrat who returned to Oregon for the congressional summer recess said he isn’t sure the president can win a second term or even carry his very blue state. Rep. Peter DeFazio says he’s unhappy with the president’s ‘flip flops’ in negotiations with Republicans and thinks a moderate GOP candidate could beat Obama next year. ‘At this point, it pretty much depends on how far out there the Republican nominee is. You know, with a respectable someone who is a little bit toward the middle of the road Republican nominee, he’s going to have a very tough time getting reelected,’ DeFazio told Portland TV station KGW.”
I literally choked on my next sip of a nice New England summer ale when one of them said, “New Hampshire was right. Hillary Clinton would have made a better president.”
Whoa!
Then the other shoe dropped. “I think we need a write-in candidate for the 2012 Iowa Democratic caucuses and Hillary would be my choice.”
This kind of talk can get you into serious trouble, but I share it with you because while we are all concentrating on the horrendous problems the GOP is having in its presidential candidate search we have badly neglected the disaffection, disappointment and outright anger that President Obama has triggered in his own trenches.
Challenges to incumbent presidents from his own party occur but success is difficult. In recent history Eugene McCarthy ran against Lyndon Johnson in 1968 because LBJ was too conservative. Johnson decided not to seek re-election. Ronald Reagan ran against Gerald Ford in 1976 because Ford was too liberal. Ford lost. Sen. Ted Kennedy ran against Jimmy Carter in 1980 because Carter was too conservative. Carter lost. Pat Buchanan ran against George H.W. Bush in 1992 because Bush was too liberal. Bush lost.
However, the lesson is that presidents who are challenged within their own party are often wounded politically and lost the election to the other party. A serious challenge to an incumbent president is a canary in the political coal mine. Something is wrong.
The re-election of a sitting president requires an iron discipline and unflagging support from his own party leaders and the party voting base plus a substantial percentage of independent, no-party voters. In spite of his impressive fund-raising successes, President Obama may have trouble right here in River City.
From where I sit, watch, listen, check my abundant email and phone messages, I know many, many Democrats in Iowa who are deeply troubled by Obama’s policies and lack of firm leadership pushback against the Republicans. Whether they will dare to launch a caucus write-in insurgency for Hillary Clinton or some other Democrat is still uncertain. But even just talk of that should get the attention of the White House.
