Dan Rather: Obama Likely to get Primary Opponent

[tomm2thumbs]

Run time: 01:45 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HVOxc3Tfk8   Posted on YouTube: December 06, 2010 By YouTube Member: MKLewisCampaign Views on YouTube: 1869   Posted on DU: December 07, 2010 By DU Member: tomm2thumbs Views on DU: 3252

 
Dan Rather speaks to the issue of Obama supporting an extension of Bush tax cuts for the millionaires/billionaires in this country on Jansing and Company, MSNBC:

'This is a political nightmare for Barack Obama as president. The more-left portion of his party hates this with a passion. And politically, within his own party, if this goes through, Barack Obama will be in a position to have his shirttail on fire, his back to the wall, and the bill collector at the door. Which is metaphorically a way of saying he’s almost guaranteed — if this goes through — to have a serious challenge in a Democratic primary for president in 2012.'

and further goes on

'The perception is that he won’t fight for anything. Many of the heavy contributors to the Democratic Party are beyond shock about this happening, and are saying to themselves, This guy has about four to six months to turn the perception of him and the party around or we’ve got to start thinking about somebody else in 2012.'

_______

what is it they say - lie down with the dogs, wake up with the fleas?

[Radical Activist]

1. It's the perception GE-NBC keeps pushing becuase they want to get rid of Obama.

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Hardrada]

5. I guess they can't be wrong all the time.

A stopped clock etc....

[sabrina 1]

6. No one has to push at all. He appears to not want a second

term himself. He is doing everything he can to turn off those who elected him. Now there is serious talk about a challenger.

As someone said tonight, this Bush tax cut deal was a big line in the sand for many people. He just added to the deficit and will now go on to try to make the elderly, the disabled and dependent children pay for it.

I feel sick at heart at the opportunity squandered, time after time by this WH.

[defendandprotect]

26. That and even more damaging, the harm he is doing to the Demcratic Party ....

Perhaps soon topped off by a further attack by Obama on Social Security?

We've watched two years -- with lots of damage done --

Even more frightening that this man will be in office -- WITH THE SAME GANG

OF CROOKS ADVISING HIM -- for the next two years.

[LiberalLovinLug]

40. And the Republicans will then blame him for the increased deficit!

And their bagger sheep will baaaaaalive it.

[slay]

16. Radical eh?

well they aren't the only ones who want him gone - he won't get my vote in 2012 - but then you already knew that "Radical". :eyes:

[LostinRed]

18. He might but that would be a terrible idea

I too am disappointed in President Obama, but I'll vote for him and I would rather see him re-elected than have a President Palin or Romney at least I don't have to fear for my life with President Obama. I won't however wait in a three hour line to attend an Obama rally this time around. I'll vote for him and that's it.

[ooglymoogly]

25. Join the club. nt

[suzanner]

43. Facilitator Obama?

As a Red Dwarf fan, this short video is so applicable but if the link isn't working, google: facilitator red dwarf
<object style="height: 390px; width: 640px"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/5WgUktfdDy4?version=3"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/5WgUktfdDy4?version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="390"></object>

[pattmarty]

44. Yeah, right. Happen to have any fucking proof of that idiotic statement?

[napi21]

2. As much as I hate to admit it, Dan is right. I was even questioning

myself & wondering if I was just too left extremist, but listening to
Dan saying the bigcontributors to the Dem Party feel the same way convinces me that it's not jst me. Dan is a very good reporter with a lot of great connections in his business. i feel terrible that Obama isn't what the Country wanted but I don't know what to do to movehim in the right direction.

[Shining Jack]

3. "Dan is a very good reporter"

He's one of the remaining few that still deserves to be called a reporter IMHO.

[Fearless]

38. Agreed!

[defendandprotect]

27. Imagine what GOP voters would have been doing had W taken a turn like this??

They would have been in the White House carting him out -- !!

Imagine -- if you possibly can -- anyone saying that Democrats were holding

Bush hostage and so he had to compromise!!!

It boggles the mind, really .... !!!

[olegramps]

7. I couldn't be more disappointed than I am in Obama.

He is setting the entire Democratic Party up for massive losses. The last election was bad enough, but the 2012 will be a slaughter. He is bringing not himself down, but the entire party. It is time for the Democratic Party to be taken over by someone from the unions who actually represents the working class. The Democratic Party has totally lost its way. It stands for nothing. It most certainly doesn't represent the working class. This administration is not only not pro-union it has stabbed the Teachers Unions in the back.

[timefortherevolution]

8. He's bringing down the PARTY? He's bringing the country down.

[defendandprotect]

28. ... Agree --

question is ... does Obama really not know that?


:eyes:

[TheEuclideanOne]

32. The Democratic party has not lost it's way.

The party is still strong, but the person at the helm right now is not following that way in the least. Once cuts to Social Security are made we will literally be out of issues to sell out on. The Democratic party will need to find somebody to elect somebody who can represent them. Unfortunately, so much damage has been done, I am not sure what the new person could even accomplish as much as they try, but it will be nice to at least see somebody trying.

[tex-wyo-dem]

42. Unfortunately, I agree with you...

Funny...two years ago after the Dems had slaughtered the rethugs in two consecutive elections, many Dems and Progressives were seriously worried about having a single-party rule in Washington...seriously. I remember listening to Thom Hartmann where he had CONservative guests on talking about this not being particularly healthy for government (one party having so much power) and how rethugs were likely to shift to the left since this was the obvious direction the country was swinging.

My, how things change...

[activa8tr]

9. Alan Grayson Bernie Sanders, we need a real man (or woman) with a backbone

and the personal commitment to economic justice and a hundred other issues to run for President.

[EnviroBat]

11. What about Howard Dean?

Too tainted by events from the past? he always seems like a strong leader to me. Maybe he could get it right.

[activa8tr]

13. Dean was fine then, and is fine now. I just think the right destroyed him because

Howard Dean would have been stronger than Obama on health insurance reform, as courageous as Hillary, and as committed to social justice as Senator Sanders. I'm sure Sanders wouldn't get to first base in a run, you may be right, Howard Dean is better known, too.

I just don't know who can win primaries against Obama's green internet machine, which keeps asking me for my time and money more than once a week, keeps asking me to make calls for some issue or another, (and then Obama gives away the entire farm to Republicans who are STILL a minority in both houses of Congress, as of today!) Sickening!

[defendandprotect]

30. We will have a fight getting any real liberal into office .... TPB are used to pre-selecting

the candidates they want -- and then giving them to us to vote for --

on computers, btw --

just in case they don't like the way we vote -- hackable computers -- and

even the early votes/absentee ballots are counted by computer!!

IMO, we need the advice of liberal leadership we can trust to decide what to

do with the Democratic Party -- and other than Sen. Bernie Sanders ... who do

we really trust these days?

We could draft Sanders and Michael Moore as Democrats -- ????

[defendandprotect]

29. PLEASE ... recognize that Obama has a backbone of steel .....

just NOT when it comes to liberal/human rights issues -- ONLY CORPORATE ISSUES!!

[Capt. America]

10. Quitness

[zydeco]

12. I can no longer defend this President

Everyone agrees the republicans drove the car into the ditch,
but instead of working hard to get the car out of the ditch,
he decides to try and fill the ditch with water and float it out.
The bad situation just became a nightmare.

As far as reelection, one chance, he will switch party affiliation and win with a landslide.

[activa8tr]

14. Run as a REPUBLICAN!! I think you've come up with a winning...

strategy for Obama. He won't need millions of $10 donations, he's got the banks, insurance companies, pharma, defense contractors, etc.

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

22. Or he can join Joe Liberman as an "Independent Democrat"

"Obama, party of two? Obama, party of two?"

[LaPera]

15. If Obama gets a challenge from his own party-HE WILL LOSE-It'll weaken him just like Carter!

When Kennedy challenged Carter, who the republicans successfully were able to labeled Carter (though the complicit corporate media) as a weak president - which was 100% complete bullshit - it still weakened President Carter and the Democratic party and it gave Reagan the mandate and the corporate fascist republicans a blue-print for complete corporatism for the rich that we are still dealing with today!

There's not any good that can come from challenging ones own sitting president, as the other party will always look strong and united and they'll cruise....

Believe me, though I voted for Obama, I'm not Obama's biggest fan, a long way from that....But the fact is the Dems are suicidal if they challenge their own president - and if the fascist republicans gain the presidency, congress and senate, (and have the Supreme Court) for four to eight years this country is finished - A complete corporate state with very few options or avenues will be available or left open for ANY dissent what so ever!

The republicans have been building this corporate state stronger & stronger since Reagan....If we give it to them again they will finish it!!

[zipplewrath]

20. He gets a challenger because he will lose

Sitting presidents get primary challengers because they earn them. They earn them because they lose the confidence of their own party that they can win the general election. When the large money contributors to the party lose confidence in you to hold on to office, they tend to act. Better to lose trying than to losing waiting for the inevitable.

[happygoluckytoyou]

23. 100% TRUE.... hillary has more balls, saunders has more spine... OBAMA HAS NO GUTZ

[ooglymoogly]

24. Our only chance is to make sure a challenger succeeds.

This president has crossed the line too many times the line has become meaningless.

[NorthCarolina]

33. The Tea Party will have the GOP in total disarray in 2011. I suspect a successful primary challenge

to Obama by a true Liberal/Progressive would win in a landslide over whoever floats to the top in the GOP.

[JHB]

37. They were able to label Carter as weak because of Iran...

...and the still-ongoing hostage crisis, particularly the Desert 1 fiasco.

And, of course, Carter's human rights-based foreign policy and pending nuclear treaties enraged the Republican wingnuts. By not being a bellicose "tough guy", they painted him as weak.

Those things influenced far more people than Kennedy's primary.

[pezDispenser]

17. My district is represented in the House by Trent Franks

This guy runs on 1 issue every 2 years - stop abortion. In his 6 or whatever terms he's had, he's done fuck all to stop abortion, but these nuts out here love him. I always ask myself, how can these people keep electing him? I don't expect them to give up on thier hope of ending abortions, but they gave this guy his shots. IMHO, they should put someone else in there who represents the same anti-abortion stance as Franks; give some new guy a chance to make something happen.

I'm beging to think its time to take my own advice regarding Obama.

[subterranean]

19. I disagree that this alone will result in a primary opponent.

A bigger concern is what comes next. This tax cut extension will blow an even bigger hole in the deficit, and Republicans will soon pressure Obama to make major spending cuts, including Social Security and Medicare. I'm afraid he might "compromise" on those, too. If he does, he is much more likely to be primaried.

[Dave From Canada]

21. Hillary 2012! She suggested a payroll tax holiday 3 years ago!

[defendandprotect]

31. Hillary is part of DLC-pro corporate leadership ... why would we do that????

[Dave From Canada]

49. How were things under the leadership of President Clinton? Nuff said.

[peoli]

34. whoever runs against Obama will get their ass handed to them.

[leeroysphitz]

35. I respect Dan Rather but he is clearly intoxicated in this clip.

Having said that I agree with him 100%.

[MissDeeds]

36. I hope Dan is right

No way can the party continue on this path. Obama is not serving his base - not by a long shot. He has sold us out.

[Fearless]

39. This isn't about disappointment or disillusionment anymore, as he alludes... this is about ANGER...

The democratic base is ANGRY and its about time too.

[JAbuchan08]

41. Not a great fan of Obama right now, but it seems like someone is pushing a meme here

[timefortherevolution]

47. Me. I am. Spitzer in '12.

[Riley18]

45. Obama took care of himself. He only wanted to become

president for one term so he would be set for life. Let's face it, he is smart enough to realize how wrong his policies are for the country. His plan must be to take the money and run. Maybe he will write another children's book or something because he is good with fantasy.

[mimi85]

46. Grayson? Sanders?

Does anyone, I mean ANYONE, think they could run & win the presidency? I admire both of them enormously , but it ain't gonna happen. Hell, Grayson couldn't even win his district! Sadly enough.

This whole drama will pass, just like the Cuban Missile Crisis & Watergate with Nixon in the 70s - although I sure had fun during those days. When you're younger, you rarely pay attention to politics (though I did protest the Vietnam War). As you get into middle age, hopefully you gain some wisdom and not flip out about stuff like this. Not to mention that if I walked around our neighborhood, folks are helping kids with homework, cooking dinner, washing laundry - I doubt that 10% of them are aware of any of what went on today (or much of the history of the US). Also, the President said this was a "framework" - so we'll see what happens. Take a deep breath, the sun will still come up tomorrow.

Also, we need DADT repealed, the START treaty ratified, etc, etc. And with a little over 3 weeks to do it all, time is running out. The Grand Old Tea Party won't let anything go through come January. Instead of flooding the congressional Dem's phones, we should write letters (pen & paper - remember actually writing a letter?) to the Republicans.

[tickledropstop]

48. kr