Obama's most ardent supporter trumpeting a conservative position on the anointed one? Is hell freezing over?
In Addition...
From The National Journal:
Former Democratic Pollsters:
Obama Should Abandon Run for Second Term
by Michael Catalini
President Obama should abandon his run for a second term and turn over the reins of the Democratic Party to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, two one-time Democratic pollsters wrote in Monday's Wall Street Journal, which appeared online Sunday.
Patrick H. Caddell and Douglas E. Schoen argued that just as Harry Truman and Lyndon Johnson decided not to pursue additional runs though they could have, Obama should do the same.
“He should abandon his candidacy for re-election in favor of a clear alternative, one capable not only of saving the Democratic Party, but more important, of governing effectively and in a way that preserves the most important of the president's accomplishments. He should step aside for the one candidate who would become, by acclamation, the nominee of the Democratic Party: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton,”Caddell and Schoen wrote.
Caddell, who worked as a pollster for President Jimmy Carter, and Schoen, who was a pollster for President Bill Clinton, argue that Obama will inevitably have to run a negative campaign in order to win reelection, the negative consequences of which will make it difficult for him to govern effectively.
“One year ago in these pages, we warned that if President Obama continued down his overly partisan road, the nation would be ‘guaranteed two years of political gridlock at a time when we can ill afford it.’ The result has been exactly as we predicted: stalemate in Washington, fights over the debt ceiling, an inability to tackle the debt and deficit, and paralysis exacerbating market turmoil and economic decline,” they write.
Caddell and Schoen say they write as “patriots and Democrats” who are concerned for their country, and they do not expect to play a direct role in any possible Clinton campaign.
This is not the first time Caddell and Schoen have made this argument. They wrote in November 2010 in The Washington Post that they “do not come to this conclusion lightly. But it is clear, we believe, that the president has largely lost the consent of the governed.”
Actually the headline should read:
ReplyDeleteFake Democratic Pollsters Have Stupid Idea
The Wall Street Journal publishes nonsense from Doug Schoen and Pat Caddell, because they think you're an idiot
From Slate:
Caddell and Schoen, two loser “Democratic” “pollsters,” regularly publish very lame link-bait columns about how if Democrats want to succeed electorally, they must immediately cease being Democrats, and become, instead, Republicans. This week’s variation on that theme: Barack Obama should step aside (already heard that one last year around this time) and allow himself to be replaced by Hillary Clinton, for the good of the party and the nation.
...
So Hillary Clinton should be president instead of Barack Obama, because Obama is too partisan and divisive. America needs a bipartisan plan to attack the deficit and also create jobs, and it is Obama’s fault that that is a vague, magical fairy tale. Hillary Clinton will make this fairy tale real, thanks to the fact that, as we all know, Republicans love cheerfully working with the Clintons for the good of the nation. When a Clinton’s in the White House, partisan politics are always put aside!
There's more here.
Hey, that's fair. Slate's entitled to their OPINION every bit as much as Caddell and Schoen. But don't mistake Slate's opinion for superiority over theirs. It's not.
ReplyDeleteAs for 'working with the Clinton's for the good of the nation,' as I recall Republican's did just that when Clinton was in office, and the net result was Welfare Reform, and a Balanced Budget, to name but two. President Clinton (who wasn't really all that bad of a president, considering) didn't do either of those things on his own; he merely signed them into law and got the credit (which is fine, as far as that goes; every president takes credit like that, though it would be fairer to say "I presided over the passage of...") It took Gingrich and the Republican house (in addition to the Senate) to get those measures to his desk. And whereas Clinton was pragmatic enough to recognize a need to shift to center (which won him reelection) when republicans won the house, Obama is not so pragmatic. He's an ideologue doubling down on reckless and stupid. And that makes him far more dangerous than Clinton ever was.
As for 'working with the Clinton's for the good of the nation,' as I recall Republican's did just that when Clinton was in office
ReplyDeleteYeah, and then they impeached him.
And whereas Clinton was pragmatic enough to recognize a need to shift to center (which won him reelection) when republicans won the house, Obama is not so pragmatic.
What a hoot! Obama couldn't MOVE any more to the center. A Republican in Congress wouldn't know a center if he were standing in front of Shaquille O'Neal. There is not a Republican in Congress or running for President who will admit publicly that there is a "center" position that they would hold their nose and vote for, much less openly support.