Pressure grows on Hillary to challenge sinking Obama

Will Hillary Clinton challenge Barack Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination?

She says no, that she never wants to run for office again. But the pressure is growing on her to change her mind as Obama continues to slide in the polls — and as the left bloc of the party and Latino and black voters become more vocal in their disapproval of the president. And when White House spokesman Jay Carney was asked about the possibility at a press briefing on Monday, he was less than convincing with his answer. “You’d have to ask her,” Carney stammered after Lester Kinsolving of World Net Daily posed the question. “We’re fairly confident that we need to focus on the task at hand.” More than 1 in 4 Democrats — 27 percent — say they want someone other than Obama to run next year according to a CNN/ORC International poll. And while Obama’s job satisfaction figures have been running at 39 percent, the latest figure for the secretary of state, albeit from March, put her with a job approval rating of 66 percent.

Talk of a Clinton run started when independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders said last month that Obama needed a challenge because he has drifted too far to the right. “There are millions of Americans who are deeply disappointed in the president, who believe that with regard to Social Security and other things, he said one thing as a candidate and is doing something very much else as a president — who cannot believe how weak he has been for whatever reason in negotiating with Republicans,” Sanders said. “It would do this country a good deal of service if people started thinking about candidates out there to begin contrasting a progressive agenda as opposed to what Obama believes he’s doing.

Though Sanders did not mention Clinton by name, she is seen as the most viable Democratic challenger to Obama. She ran hard against him for the nomination in 2008 and generally has been viewed as the most able member of the administration.

Conservative commentator S.E. Cupp took it one step further in her column last week in the New York Daily News. “She'd be tough and liberal,” wrote Cupp. “But far more importantly, she'd be effective. She'd be focused. Whether or not she got signature legislation through the Congress, she'd get the country back on the right track.” And on Tuesday, veteran correspondent Andrew Malcolm raised the issue in his blog for the Los Angeles Times. “A challenge to Obama seems pretty far-fetched today, with his job approval hovering around 39%. Hard to imagine the loyal secretary of State, who'll turn 64 in October, abruptly resigning to mount a challenge to her current boss and onetime bitter rival,” wrote Malcolm. “And she swears — well, actually, she just proclaims — that she'll never seek elective office again. “But, say, winter nears and the Republicans are dominating the political news with Mitt Romney and Rick Perry duking it out. “And August's 39% job-approval rating for the president has melted into 33% or 32%. And the economy shows no real signs of improving despite another couple of empty Obama jobs speeches calling for more spending on infrastructure because the first $787 billion didn't work.”

The feeling among Democrats that they backed the wrong horse in 2008 has been growing in recent weeks. They have become alarmed that Obama has appeared weak in dealing with Republicans especially over raising the debt ceiling and on spending cuts. One joke going the rounds after last week’s east coast earthquake, was that Republicans demanded it be 5.9 on the Richter Scale while Obama wanted it to be 3.5, so the two sides compromised and ended up with a 5.9. His poll figures among Latinos have fallen from 85 percent approval in 2009 to 49 percent now. His figures among African Americans remain in the 80s, but only this month Rep. Maxine Waters urged supporters to “unleash” her and other Congressional Black Caucus members so they could criticize him more harshly. President Bill Clinton’s former press secretary Dee Dee Myers told the Washington Post, “The president has shown himself unwilling to dig in on a position. He’s for jobs, I’ve heard him say that. He’s for being the adult in the room. But beyond that, I’m not actually sure what his bottom line is.” And North Carolina Democratic strategist Gary Pearce said, “Democrats are worried. He looks weak, he doesn’t say anything that grabs you and people are looking for some kind of magic. “You see a yearning for a Bill Clinton-type approach and Hillary would reflect that. Obama is just a different political animal.” Pollster Pat Caddell, who was working for President Jimmy Carter when Ted Kennedy tried to unseat Carter in 1980, said a challenge will become much more likely if the GOP wins the New York congressional seat formerly held by Anthony Weiner in a Sept. 13 special election. “That seat is the darkest blue Democrat you can be,” he said, adding that a lot of Jewish voters there are unhappy with the Obama administration’s policies on Israel. “If the Democrats lost that seat on the 13th, that’s the kind of earthquake that would start shaking up people,” Caddell told Fox News’ Neil Cavuto on Tuesday. Cavuto pointed out that nearly all post-war presidents who have seen their poll numbers slip have faced challenges that have fatally weakened them: Lyndon Johnson was challenged by Eugene McCarthy and soon after said he would not run again; Gerald Ford faced off with Ronald Reagan and then lost the election to Carter, and then Kennedy challenged Carter, who subsequently lost to Reagan. Caddell said he did not expect a challenge to come from Hillary Clinton because of her position within the administration. He also said many Democrats are leery about taking on the first African American president in a primary. A challenge is more likely to come from the left of the party, he said, mentioning the name of former Wisconsin Sen. Russ Feingold as a potential candidate. “If the president keeps going down, the job situation gets worse, if we have more problems this fall, at some point you are going to have people who say it’s worth showing the flag, it is worth making the case.

“The argument becomes, ‘It is time to get the president’s attention. We can’t be taken for granted and by being wishy-washy you’re going to lose anyway.’” If Clinton does decide to run, the battle within the Democratic Party would almost certainly be even more bitterly fought than it was four years ago. During that campaign, Clinton called Obama “irresponsible and naïve,” and issued a damning campaign advertisement questioning whether he would be the right person to answer a 3 a.m. phone call alerting him to an international crisis.

Hillary could raise a WHOLE bunch of money, the media would drop Hussein in an instant, and the usual suspects would line up behind the democrats.

But the CORRUPTOCRATS will see the gravy train get cut off, while the Radical academic nutjobs who attacked her relentlessly in 2008 won’t be getting any cush jobs out of it.

True Teddy remained a lion within the Democrat Party because of his staunch liberalism and family name even though he helped doom Carter’s re-election chances.

But the Clintons are not viewed as dreamy idealists and would be regarded as opportunistic hyenas should they decide to turn on BHO.

And of course the black community would go apepoop, the Clintons would forever alienate the largest and most loyal element of the Democrat coalition. It would me the mother of all civil wars.

And like I said before, I so no signs or elements of this potential challenge coming into fruition and time is running out.

We would see signs by now
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Maybe they are waiting to cash in all their ‘chips’ at the convention and accept a write in, grassroots nomination.

That way the C’s can’t be accused of mutiny, the masses will have to take the blame, then they can comfortably blame BO and W for their campaign.

You can also bet your bippy she has her original BC in the back pocket of her pants suit.

After 4 years of being an Obama toadie (sec. of state), HOW could she run a campaign against Obama?

I’ll tell ya how. Billary leaks the true dirt they have on Obama. In exchange for his promise not to run, the Senate agrees not to impeach him and remove him from office.

Hillary easily slides into the lead demo contender as Bill used to slide his cigars into... (edit)

Say what you want, even Hilda-beast would be better then Obama. At least she was born here and not raised to hate this country as much as he has.

Plus, you know there would be some awesome Bill Clinton as First Husband sex scandal. Maybe since he’s a vegetarian, a celery stalk would replace the cigar as the weapon of choice.

Unfortunately, I think that a Hillary nomination would paralyze the Republican Party like Obama’s Nomination did. They were afraid to attack him because he is black and they will be afraid to attack her because she is allegedly a woman.

Exactly. When the WH Insider stuff was being posted here the whole theme of it was about hil challenging 0 to save the party and country. That started over a year or more ago. So far zip and since then the insider has been zotted from this site. There is no doubt there is little love lost between the toons and the totus gang but for now the war drums are silent.

The atheist “conservative” builds up the She-Beast.

I disagree. Let's all pump up a Hitlary challenge to Obummer in this election. It would send the Rats into total meltdown. That will be fun.

I swear I didn’t see this before I posted on other threads that HRC is inevitable.

In fact, it will happen on or before December 16th.

At Christmas break, with enough time for her to run and win. There won’t be primaries for her, the road will be clear.

She’ll come out automatically running to the right of Obama (which isn’t hard) and she’ll be saying, “So, was I wrong about the man?”

If she runs, she wins. That simple.

The fact that Romnoid has finally awakened to the concept that the Tea Party is something he’ll need to win indicates the GOP is still very much stuck on inept.

Perry is scary in the he feels as wobbly as Bush in many of the same areas. We don’t need any more compassion. We need leadership and an adherence to both principles and policies we know will work.

First faux-con that utters ‘amnesty’ should have his chair flip back, the floor open, and the occupant sent into a vat of burning oil, for example.

Among the scariest things about HRC is that she’s even more anti-semite than Obama, and evidently Baker and Scowcroft.

Even though Carter is a liberal, the Northeastern elite never liked him because he was a white man from the South and was religious...so it was easier for Teddy to challenge him. (So unfair of Roger Mudd to pose that trick question to Teddy, "Why do you want to be President?").

For Hillary to challenge a sitting black President would be a lot trickier. Short of Obama announcing he won't run for another term (extremely unlikely) I don't see her running in 2012.

Hillary would not have been better than Obama...she likely would have been far worse.

Hillary does hate America...her policies have always been almost identical to Obama's; the difference is she's not so impulsive. She would have done the same things but with more patience and more skill in handling the press.

I doubt she will run now because she knows all the arguments she would make are similar to Obama's and the public is on to those arguments now (Universal heathcare, taxing the rich, etc.) But I'm glad she did not win the Dem nomination over him.

I guess Teddy smelled blood, figured Carter wasn’t liberal enough, thought enough time had passed since Chappaquiddick, and decided to go for it. He didn’t do that poorly winning most of the big states including NY and CA and nearly 40% of the delegates.

Of course Teddy could have never won a national election carrying more personal baggage than a 747.

No convention would overturn the results garnered in the primaries and caucuses.
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You know Gen B, in days of yore I would have marched into battle with you, using the above as our ‘battle cry’.

However, taking into consideration we are talking about not only Liberals, we are talking Clintons, who when it comes to politics make LBJ look like a choir boy.

So, as unlikely as it may be (or even can be) nothing by this bunch would surprise me.

The R’s, on the other hand, would keep Howdy Doody as the nominee no matter what the circumstances - UNLESS of course he was a ‘Tea Partier’ or full blown Conservative- then they may attempt a coup.

I’m unaware that establishment white liberals have any kind of history standing up to black democrats.

The idea that liberals would take very public steps to undermine the first black president is patently absurd.

I never thought of that, but you are right.

In 1992 a psychiatrist told me it was his opinion from listening to Bill Clinton that Bill Clinton was pathological and a sociopath, but didn't really see him as especially dangerous.

He said it was his opinion from listening to Hillary that Hillary was a psychopath. She would get pleasure from killing.

You make some good points, but, the reaction of black voters to dumping the first black president could be considerable. Could Hillary still get 90+% of the black vote if she gets the nomination in a coup to dump Obama? Would black voter turnout tank if Obama is dumped?

Before the Democrats basically just substantiated in glaring public view the falsehood that a man, any man, but especially a black man can do as good a job as any other man at the highest job in the land, I would have agreed with you.

That bell, however, has been rung, and it cannot be thus.

The black establishment hasn’t got any better answers for the party than it did before, and if ever there was a constituency that had absolutely no where to go, it’s them.

They’ll do what they are told, or the race hustling gravy train will be scrapped for good over the next 8 years.

There are more Womyn than blacks anyway, and blacks are out of ‘do-overs’.

“We did black in 2008 and look where it got us.”

Hillary is the new black this year. She’s the original, silent, dignified, long suffering victim, who lost gracefully, did her duty well for the Administration, and was RIGHT ABOUT HIM ALL ALONG.

They will repay their debt to the party for her service to it.

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