Primarying Obama only assures Republican victory in 2012

[timkainemustgo]

Just look at recent history.

1968- LBJ was challenged by Eugene Macarthy, LBJ dropped out. Democrats had a bloodbath in Chicago. Nixon wins close election.

1976-Reagan challenged Gerald Ford in a bitter primary battle. Ford won the nomination but lost in November.

1980-Ted Kennedy challenged Carter in a nasty bitter race for the nomination. Kennedy supporters stayed home in large numbers or else voted for the independent John Anderson. Reagan won.

1992-Pat Buchanan took on GHW Bush in the primaries. He ran way better than expected. Clinton won in November.

If you want your party to lose the White House then mount a primary challenge to a sitting president.

It is impossible to wrestle the nomination away from a sitting president. They have too much control over the inner party workings.

[gateley]

1. Agree - we shouldn't even be considering it, especially in this political climate.

The Reps have never been more dangerous. :scared:

[jwirr]

2. Agreed. Hopefully the people will be sick of the no party by then.

[texastoast]

5. You mean the "yes" party, IF you are a corporation or billionaire n/t

[MannyGoldstein]

3. Correlation does not prove causality

If a Democrat had primaried FDR, would that have hurt him? Doubtful.

Primarying can only make any headway when the incumbent is already weak. Nature abhors a vacuum.

[Dinger]

4. Well, There's A First Time For Everything (nt)

[marlakay]

6. thats exactly how i feel

if we primary him it will give the right the ammo they need to take us down.

[gkhouston]

7. Nope. If we have a challenger strong enough to take him out, that person

should run in the general. I personally doubt that will happen but if it does, it does.

[mzmolly]

9. There is no challenger strong enough and most of us aren't interested.

85 percent of his supporters want him to lead the country for six more years.

[Deep13]

8. A primary challenge is a response to a weak president.

It is an act of desperation when party insiders know that there is no way for the incumbent president to win.

[jeff47]

10. Wow do you have it wrong.

1968: LBJ had the albatross of Vietnam around his neck, which also created the chaos in Chicago, which lead to defeat. Remember Nixon promised to end Vietnam. In addition, the dixiecrats were basically in open rebellion, and the post-war economic boom was grinding to a halt.

1976: Ford couldn't win because of the aftermath of Watergate.

1980: Carter was in terrible trouble long before the election, mostly because he had AWFUL media strategy....which should sound incredibly familiar to anyone watching the Obama White House.

1992: Bad Economy = Clinton win. After all, "It's the economy, stupid" was coined in that election.

Strong primaries of sitting presidents are the symptom, not the cause. Presidents that are doing terribly get primaried, but it's not the primary that weakens the president. The president's already weak.