[Danae]

Ohhhh It's time for the Primary Kiss of Death cheer. No sitting president has been re-elected after facing a primary challenge in modern times.

I never thought I would be able to say this since the seat belt thing... but THANK YOU RALPH NADER!!!!!!!!!!!

[Billthedrill]

What the...wait. Have I dropped through a time-warp again? We got Jerry “Moonbeam” Brown in the California gubernatorial seat, Ralph Nader challenging the primaries, a Dem President with Carteresque approval numbers who’s bleating about a countrywide “malaise” - OMG. I just looked down and I’m wearing bell-bottoms. Groovy, baby.

[ZULU]

SEND THEM MONEY!!

Anything which damages Obama is good news.

[Hoodat]

Nixon had challengers in 1972. Pete McCloskey actually got a delegate vote at the GOP Convention.

[Qwackertoo]

I saw him last week on Cavuto, I think, and said a little prayer. I was only half listening to the interview but sure was hoping he would or he would get someone else to. They were talking about getting on the ballot and the process.

[AlphaOneAlpha]

“No sitting president has been re-elected after facing a primary challenge in modern times.”

Try Ted Kennedy's 1980 challenge of Jimmy Carter in the primaries. Carter beat Kennedy for the Dem nomination, but then got his ears boxed by the cowboy from California....Reagan.

[afraidfortherepublic]

This bears watching. The Republicans are totally geared up to campaign against Obama, just as they were to campaign against Hitlery in 2008. If the Rats pull a switcheroo, will the Pubbies be caught off guard and lose the whole thing in a shuffle? Do younger voters even know who Ralph Nader is?

[tsowellfan]

I’d send Nader money if I didn’t accidentally send it to the wrong David Lewis

[Dubya-M-DeesWent2SyriaStupid!]

You’re correct Obama is done if this goes through.But it is Nader.I also remember seeing an article that WEINER was going to challenge Obama BEFORE WeinerGate. So the Obama machine will be calling the papers with dirt on whoever dares challenges thewon.

[pepsi_junkie]

Liberals vow to challenge Obama in Democratic primaries

Intended effect of this headline: "There, ya see Marge! I told you he wasn't a liberal! The liberals all want him out! He only seems liberal because of all that scary extremist republican propaganda!"

[danielmryan]

Ol' Ralph has a past that not many know about.

Yes, it's the same Ralph Nader.

[sodpoodle]

The most damage is inflicted during the primaries - the nuclear proving grounds.

Before the GOP wounds are healed the media has its rubbing alcohol ready.

Before the favorite DEM is mortally wounded, the media gets everyone to hug and make up.

[wrhssaxensemble]

I watched Judge Napolitano’s show on Fox Business this weekend. He interviewed Dennis Kucinich and then Ralph Nader, both of whom- like I assume most of you- I don’t usually agree with at all. He asked them both about Obama as a president and I never thought it would happen but I agreed 100% with everything they had to say about him. From being in bed with big business (e.g. GE, Google) at the expense of small businesses to the illegal war in Libya that he didn’t even bother to consult Congress about, the Right and Left are both pissed and largely for the same reasons even if they have different views on how things should be done and the end goals. That is how you know Obama’s toast- when small government people have the same general gripes about him as the big goverment folks despite different views on the world and different goals.

[Leep]

I may even go on some lefty sites and make a big fuss over Nader running..:)

[The Pack Knight]

Well, no sitting president has been re-elected after facing a significant primary challenge, by which I mean a challenger who can garner at least 20% of the primary vote. In the primary era, that means Reagan in '76, Ted Kennedy in '80, and Buchannan in '92.

On the other hand, sitting presidents are re-elected in the face of weak primary challenges all the time. See gadfly candidates like Harold Stassen in '84 and Lyndon LaRouche in '96. I see Nader as more of a Stassen or LaRouche than a Kennedy or Buchannan - he is a perennial candidate who has never received a significant share of the vote in any election he's run in. Beyond the endorsements of a few eccentric celebrities, he is an electoral nonentity.

Also, to put things in a converse (and less positive) light, no sitting President eligible to be re-elected has failed to be re-elected absent a significant challenger from his own party. Besides Reagan, Kennedy, and Buchannan, see Eugene McCarthy and RFK in '68 and Estes Kefauver in '52.

That means, if the trend holds, Obama is virtually guaranteed re-election unless a credible primary challenger emerges. I can't think of anyone right now who would fit the bill other than Hillary Clinton. The few major polls over the last year or two have her winning over a third of the primary vote.

Of course, to paraphrase Yogi Berra, those sorts of trends tend to last until they're broken.

[yup2394871293]

Enough about those losers for now. Let’s focus on getting a real conservative president and congress that will take a wrecking ball to DC (the one we wanted in 1994) in 2013.

[cashless]

I think the libtards are running Nader as someone even further to the left than Obamalamadindong. Then they adorn the POS POTUS with the centrist mantle, he makes a series of centrist, populist speeches and leads the Independents out of the Republican camp, tooting his own horn all the way (never forget the sweet tune of the Pied Piper). Remember that the Independents were formerly known as Moderates and historically vote DemocRat when push gets to shove and usually make up their mind AFTER the Republican candidate shots himself in the foot, a very common occurrence every 4 years.

The average voter DOES NOT pay attention until the final month of the race. The average voter was educated in America and we are in the hands of voters who have been taught for 40+ years that capitalism, success, profit, and a high standard of living we enjoy was earned on the back of the poor and oppressed both in this country and the rest of the world. They have been taught to hate corporations and anyone who makes more money than they do. We are in a fight for the soul of this nation and we are in the Minority when it comes to cherishing, Freedom, Liberty, and the Republic. 40+ years of “Socialism is better” teaching will be hard to overcome.

[newzjunkey]

I’m not sure Nader counts as a serious primary challenge. Maybe someone else will pop up.

[mellow velo]

Every state that has a contested Democrat primary is one less state where the libs can cross over in their attempt to influence the Republican primaries.

[tanknetter]

I think people are misreading this article.

The goal isn’t to run one major primary challenger, but multiple minor ones, and not as a serious challenge but rather to get various items out onto the Dem agenda. Maybe even score a speaking slot or two at the 2012 Dem National Convention (if the challengers garner a few delegates).

This isn’t really a serious thing, from a challenge standpoint, because all the potential power of a challenge will be diffused across multiple competing challengers.

In fact, it may actually serve to PREVENT a serious challenger from emerging.

[decisis]

It will be interesting to see how this plays out on several levels, I wouldn’t expect much but you never know. First of all, we are expecting something out of extreme left wing liberals, not exactly a group that you can put a lot of faith in. Even if they field a group of candidate(s) they will probably be ignored by Obama and dismissed by the liberal media as if they don’t exist, a lunatic fringe (which they are, but then again, that is what much of the Obama vote is made up of). Fox News might be the only major TV news organization that would televise their debates; and where would these candidate(s) get their money from? The liberal media takes two tacts; they either slam the enemies of Obama (interesting, far lefties will now be the enemy) or they ignore them altogether and that is the tact I expect they will take. But of course Drudge, Fox News, Rush, Washington Times, etc, will give them a platform or at least I hope and expect that they would. There was a time when Obama was thought of as a joke of a candidate and Hilary took the extreme liberal wing of the party for granted and they ended up defeating her (funny how the Tea Party is said by liberals to be in control of the Republican party but the extreme liberals have shown they are in control of the Democratic party for years). We all know Hilary is a credible candidate and could probably win the primary and it’s a shame she won’t run because this is America and in America somebody in her position should run. But I would not totally discount even an extremely liberal, lunatic fringe type candidate from having an impact, perhaps even winning a couple of states and doing some damage. Fired up Nader supporters, for example, might just out vote lethargic Obama supporters in a Democratic primary perhaps in a small state or in a state that allows crossover voting. I don’t think incumbency is an advantage this time around and even some Democrats are seeing it (how can you not when you see Ted Kennedy and Weiner’s seats go Republican?). True I don’t have much confidence in extreme liberals to accomplish anything but I think Obama and the liberal media diss them at their own peril. The truly bizarre part of all of this is that Obama is the most extremely liberal president in history and extreme liberals are still not happy with him? UFB