December, 2010:

UPDATE: Welcomed, but not by most Democrats!

Re: Obama Far More Protected From Primary Challenge Than Clinton: Poll, Sam Stein, stein@huffingtonpost.com | Huff Post Reporting

On Tuesday, polling numbers were released confirming that suspicion. According to a CNN/Opinion Research survey, a full 78 percent of Democrats want Obama to win the nomination for a second term in office — up five percent from late October. At roughly the same point in his presidency, only 57 percent of Democrats wanted Clinton to be re-nominated.

Maybe “Caver-in-Chief” Obama has 78%, and just maybe he in fact does up those numbers just before the election, but admittedly, he doesn’t have near as much support today as he did last January. Wouldn’t it be nice if those poll numbers showed that over 90% of Democrats wanted him to win the nomination, you know, like it was last year? Just saying.

Anyway, I’m still with the 12% or so who has jumped ship. I will not get pulled to the center.

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Original Post:

Re: Nader: I am Looking for Someone to Challenge Obama in 2012 | CommonDreams.org, Published on Thursday, December 9, 2010 by The Hill

Nader: I am Looking for Someone to Challenge Obama in 2012

by Elise Viebeck

Perennial third-party candidate Ralph Nader predicted on Wednesday that President Obama’s tax deal with Republicans will earn him a primary challenge in 2012.

Perennial third-party candidate Ralph Nader

Consumer advocate, author, and Presidential candidate Ralph Nader in this file photo. Nader had harsh words for the president’s approach to politics: “He has no fixed principles. He’s opportunistic — he goes for expedience, like Clinton.” (NBC News)

Though he wouldn’t rule out another presidential campaign himself, Nader, 76, said he hoped a new face would take up the progressive cause.

“I’m not foreclosing the possibility … There are just other things to do,” he said in an interview. “And it’s time for someone else to continue. I’ve done it so many times. When I go around the country, I’m telling people they need to find somebody.”

President Obama is betting on the idea that the progressive base of the Democratic Party will go ahead and vote en masse for him when the time comes even though he has bargained away almost the entire Democratic Party platform in just two years – in most cases before the bargaining began in earnest.  This has upset the progressive base. I think the overarching thing that has the Democrats upset with the President right now is that they thought Obama would be their knight in shining armor but has turned out to be a capitulating centrist. True, he campaigned with a strong progressive stance, but has since tacked toward the center, but wasn’t that his plan all along? I tried to tell everyone that Obama wasn’t a progressive here, here, here,  here, here, and here …and more. As a matter of fact, Obama’s centrism has been one of my favorite subjects since his nomination. No “I told you so”, just facts. Many progressive Democrats, such as myself, would have loved a progressive leader like Dennis Kucinich, but alas, it did not come to pass.

But I’m still riding the progressive train. Nothing these politicians can do or say will derail my lifelong beliefs. I, and I’m sure many more like me, would love to see a real progressive candidate challenge Obama in 2012. Obama thinks that just because he will more than likely get the nomination again that we will automatically come over to him. He could not be more mistaken.