For Democrats, second thoughts about Obama?

[Yurt]

For Democrats, second thoughts about Obama?

With the nation's economy -- and arguably its politics -- in shambles, it is not very surprising to find in a recent Bloomberg poll that 34% of respondents think it would have been better for the country if Hillary Clinton hadn't lost the battle for the Democratic nomination to Barack Obama. A CNN poll released last week put Clinton's favorability rating at a tremendous 69%.

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It is often assumed that Barack Obama used his gifts as an orator and his aspirational rhetoric to energize young and minority voters in a way that allowed him to wrest the nomination from Clinton, the candidate favored by the Democratic establishment. This is a nice story, but it is not completely true. For one thing, Clinton actually defeated Obama in the popular vote.

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In response to this fact, and having an edge in the early caucus states due to superior grass-roots organizing, the Obama campaign subtly changed the understanding of the rules. It acted as if the nomination would be determined by the delegate count after the caucuses and primaries, regardless of whether an absolute majority had been achieved. What this did was to lower the overall number by more than 800 votes (the superdelegates), and consequently change the threshold of victory.

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Since most Americans are unfamiliar with how the nominating process works, this was a fairly easy story to sell. The press for the most part cooperated. Once this fiction was accepted, any other result would be seen as undemocratic. Indeed, Clinton's complaints about this unofficial after-the-fact rules change were portrayed as a divisive form of sour grapes. After all, following Sen. Obama's post-Super Tuesday February romp through 10 states, it became obvious that Sen. Clinton would not be able to win under this new threshold.

Ultimately, and most importantly, the elected and unelected leaders of the Democratic Party accepted the Obama campaign's spin. This was crucial to Obama's success, since a real victory at the convention depended on these superdelegates ignoring the fact that Clinton was the stronger general election candidate in swing states like Pennsylvania, Florida and Ohio. In the end, it was the endorsement of these superdelegates -- again, party leaders and elected officials -- that forced Clinton to concede the nomination.

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The results of the 2010 midterms, however, when combined with recent special election results, indicate that, with Obama at the top of the ticket, the prospects for many other Democratic elected officials are rather dismal. Of course, a lot of these politicians have no one to blame but themselves. I suspect, nonetheless, that they are feeling more than a twinge of buyer's remorse.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/03/opinio...html?hpt=hp_t2

[cawacko]

I can say from living in San Francisco, which was a hot bed of Obama support, a lot of people are disappointed in Obama's performance. At the end of the day you basically have four options in 2012. You can vote for Obama again, you can vote for the Republican candidate, you can vote third party or you can stay home. A lot of Democrats are like Republicans where they may be pissed off at their own candidate but it doesn't mean they are going to vote for the other party.

This is not new to post an article stating Democrats are unhappy within varying degrees with Obama. Things change though quickly in politics. In six months he could be very popular again. Never underestimate the Republicans ability to shoot themselves in the foot. So I wouldn't write Obama's political epitah just yet.

[Yurt]

i agree. i don't think obama is done yet. i wonder why he is telling us that things are worse now than 4 years ago and then having his VP tell us that obama is responsible. seems he believes without a doubt the economy will go back up.

if hillary doesn't enter the race soon, i don't see how she has a chance.

[cawacko]

No one is going to run against Obama in a Democratic primary. The biggest driver of a candidacy is money and Obama has plenty of it. There is no way any other Democrat, even Hillary, is going to jump in and raise enough money to run a serious contender so Obama is safe.

Well I have heard some progressives say they want to run a candidate not so much to beat Obama but to force him to acknowledge and deal with issues that are important to progressives so if that were to occur my statement above would be wrong.