What Democrat will take on President Obama in the Presidential contests?

By Pablo Fanque
National Affairs Editor

Unless something REALLY goes wrong, say, worse than it already has, in his last year in office, President Barack Obama will run for the White House for the Democrats, against, quite possibly, Governor Rick Perry or Ex-Governor Mitt Romney. . .and maybe an indie like Ron Paul.  Where is the opposition?

The big question, as Presidential Candidates.Org, wrote:

"Do we give President Obama his second term to reap the projected returns of his policies, or should we wipe the slate clean and bring the Republicans back into power again in the hope that this time, things will be different?"

Painting by Jack Brummet - click to enlarge

There seems to be a fair amount of support for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to throw her hat into the ring.  But Clinton told ABC News recently that the odds of her running are “. . .below zero. One of the great things about being Secretary of State is I am out of politics. I am not interested in being drawn back into it by anybody,” she said. (We get what she means, but it seems disingenuous to claim that the SoS is "out of politics.")

In recent weeks, there have been more and more calls by Democrats--including, predictably, Dennis Kucinich--for someone to step up and run against the President.  Congressman Kucinich, who ran for President in 2004 and 2008, told CNN that a challenge to BHO would “make him a better president.”

Representative Peter DeFazio from Oregon told The Hill that growing numbers of Democrats believe Obama needs a challenge. “It’s a common refrain, and it’s certainly common in my district among Democrats,” he said. “They want the guy back that they voted for.”

During the debt ceiling fiasco, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders said , “It would be a good idea if President Obama faced some primary opposition.

Democratic strategist James Carville in a CNN column last week asked the President to 'wake up' and 'panic' and to  clean house, and circle back to the "Democratic principles that got him elected."  Carville wrote "The time has come to demand a plan of action that requires a complete change from the direction you are headed."  And, finally, "Fire somebody. No — fire a lot of people."

Ralph Nader said earlier this year that if The President is challenged in some of the early primaries  “it is harder for him to say no.  His strategists can say, ‘Don’t fight it, Barack; use it, revel in it; you’re good on your feet.' ”

The problem with all this, as Newsmaxx pointed out last week, is "The re-election attempts of Lyndon Johnson, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush were all undone by primary challenges, while Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush all won second terms after avoiding any serious internal party fight."

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