Three Reasons Democrats Will Not Primary Barack Obama

Ed Rendell stated a couple days ago that Hillary Clinton would not be able to resist the urge to run for president, strongly implying she might offer a primary challenge to Barack Obama. This is not the first time Rendell fallen off the party message--he was the first to say al Gore needed to give up the ghost after the supreme court’s recount ruling in 2000- but I have strong doubts Obama will face a primary challenge from anyone, much less Clinton, in 2012. I have three reasons.



One, I do not think Clinton wants to run again. It is not just her age, although I imagine that is an unspoken factor in her mind. She has already lost once to Obama in a race in which she hung on for too long hoping some extraordinary event might change things. Shall we briefly recall her intimation someone might kill obama before he can earn the nomination? She has been subordinate to him for three years now while pushing his foreign policy agenda. A foreign policy agenda I hasten to add she would not likely pursue as president herself. I just do not believe her ego could stand losing to Obama yet again after what all she has endured since 2008. The risk is too great.



Two, the democrats have backed themselves into a corner with the party line that any opposition to Obama is rooted in racism. If one cannot oppose an Obama policy initiative without being accused of racism, how can one challenge him for the renomination and not be a racist? Granted, progressives hold themselves to a different standard about such things. Perhaps they build up enough credit that they can slip up and call obama clean and articulate without any trouble. But a primary challenge is a bit more involved than an interview gaffe, which leads to..



Three, a primary challenge will have serious racial consequences. Not that blacks will not vote lockstep 90% or more for whichever white candidate defeats obama, because all Republicans are racist and one cannot vote for them, but a primary challenge will cause a brutal division. There were hints of it in 2008. Lawrence o’Donnell famously said john Edwards should bow out of the nomination run because a southern, white man ought not cause a black man to lose the nomination. Progressives are obsessed with race even when race is not a factor. It would become factor if there was a primary challenge. No progressive wants to be responsible for defeating the first black president.



I imagine the Democrats are going to hope either obama can turn things around or the republicans nominate Ron Paul. Otherwise, they will take this one on the chin and hope for a better chance in 2016 with..I do not know. Andrew Cuomo, I guess.