Wiping The Tears From My Eyes

This NPR piece about a potential primary challenge to Obama in 2012 is pretty serious, but when I got to the punchline, I knew it was all a setup:

The candidate most likely to try to dethrone the king may not have really emerged yet. As editors at NPR keep shouting, it’s too early to be talking like this. But what if there is some Palin-like politician lurking in the wings out there whom we haven’t even thought of? Maybe someone who is a combination of former Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, former Rep. Harold Ford Jr. of Tennessee, Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri and the Sisters Sanchez (congresswomen Loretta and Linda) of California. Someone who just may be known as the Next Barack Obama.

Woo! You had me going there. Senator McCaskill might as well take a flier on it, though, since she’s probably going to leave elected government in January 2013.

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3 thoughts on “Wiping The Tears From My Eyes

  1. Yeah, I read that NPR story, too. What its analysis misses is that primary challenges to incumbent Presidents usually come from further down the incumbent’s end of the political spectrum. Obama isn’t in trouble because he’s governing too far toward the center, but to the left.

    Although he’s angered his base some (Afghanistan, DADT, etc.), I think that the health care bill has satisfied it enough to prevent anything other than a comedic primary challenge.

  2. That’s because most Democratic Presidents have been more to the center than this one.

    I think there’s room on his right (that is, toward the center) for a challenge.

  3. There’s room, and I suppose that it’s possible, but I can’t think of any modern incumbent President who’s faced any remotely serious challenge from the center of his party.

    It would be nice to see a Lieberman run, but that would make too much sense for the Democrats to consider. And given how alienated Lieberman and his centrist comrades are from the more rabid Left, I think that it’s unlikely to ever succeed in even dividing the Democratic vote, let alone winning it.

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