Excerpt: "Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said this weekend he still expects President Obama to be the Democratic nominee for president in 2012, and doesn't know of anyone who might step forward to challenge Obama."
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). (photo: WDCpix)
Sanders: I Don't Know Who Would Challenge Obama
13 August 11
en. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said this weekend he still expects President Obama to be the Democratic nominee for president in 2012, and doesn't know of anyone who might step forward to challenge Obama.
Sanders said he still supports the concept of a primary challenge for Obama, because, Sanders said, even Republicans have done a better job of keeping their campaign promises than Obama.
"I don't know of anybody in mind, but I am sure there are serious and smart people out there who can do it," Sanders said of the prospect of a primary challenge during C-SPAN's "Newsmakers" program, airing on the network this weekend.
"Here's the point: If you're asking me, do I think that, at the end of the day, Barack Obama is going to be the Democratic candidate for president in 2012? I do," Sanders said. "But do I believe that it is a good idea for our democracy and for the Democratic Party … that people start asking the president some hard questions about why said one thing during his previous campaign, and is doing another thing today on Social Security, on Medicare."
Some liberals have expressed frustration toward Obama for compromising on campaign promises and party principles, especially in his negotiations with House Republicans since they retook control of the House. The recent debt-ceiling deal, and the compromise extension of President George W. Bush's tax cuts last December angered liberals who were already deeply frustrated with the president.
Consumer activist Ralph Nader has said he's recruiting candidates to run against Obama, but there appears to be little other appetite in other quarters of the Democratic Party for waging a primary challenge to Obama.
Sanders said Republicans had done an even better job of living up to their campaign promises than Obama.
"They said that we will not support one nickel of new taxes for millionaires and billionaires and for large corporations. And you know what? They've kept their word," he charged. "I think it's a disaster for the country, but they have to be complimented. And I contrast that to some Democrats, including the president, who said, 'Well, when I run for office, this is what I'm telling you, but now, guess what, I've changed my mind.'"
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How about getting Harrison Ford and you run with him as a team. He fronts the job like Reagan and you call the shots. Oh, what a movie that would be and you guys would beat Obama in the primaries hands down! We need a little Hollywood.
to the wealthiest!
Hope it's my new window sticker in '12.
Anybody but Obama!
We need a _real_ Progressive in there, not someone with a lot of pretty words who won't actually stand up and do what is right for the American People.
But the sell out has not been completed - there is the S. Korean freetrade deal to go. Anti-Free trade and buy American should be a rallying cry for both Progressives and for conservative populists, but the culture war is inbetween.
run for President?
This country NEEDS President Sanders in 2012
Thus, Obama always lets the Republicns set the agenda and its tone. That is NOT LEADERship!
They will be too much this. Or not enough that.
They will lack experience or just be hurting the party. They will not have enough money or not be "Presidential."
But look at Jerry Brown's campaign for governor.
He sat quietly back while what's her name spent all that money.
He just waited... for people to come around, for that balance to happen, regardless of the polls or how the pundits called the horse race.
He let his opponent have rope and a checkbook, and just waited her out.
And people -- as a whole -- when the time came, just knew. And they voted, he won, and that was it.
The wrong candidate can go ahead and spend those billion dollars, but it won't change how people think or vote, regardless of conventional wisdom.
People just need the right option, at the right time. But that window is closing. Signatures need to be gathered, etc. The establishment knows this.
That's why they perpetrate their virtual farce of essentially picking the Democratic nominee every time. They call it electablility.
And Democrats buy it every time, never putting up their best, never voting their conscience, which means no Kucinich,Sander s,Warren,Grayso n, etc... evidently.
A guy who is not afraid to speak up and tackle the tough issues, not bend to the corporate gun. Along with guys like Kucinich and Robert Reich we can get this country back on track and running like it should. Lets go guys - we don't need another 4 years of waffling, indecision and disappointment.
YES!!! "NO" to a 2nd Obama Term!!!
I'm a life long Democrat, a yellow dog, to be precise, and a democratic Party county precinct. Yet, I'm think of going Independent if someone is not going to run against Obama.
I voted for Obama, campaigned for Obama, contributed many dollars of my own so that Obama could elected, but I feel he failed us and sold our dreams, our hopes and our trust to the Republicans.
Obama is nothing but a house boy for the GOP. And I often wonder why he is scared of them.
He is agaionst anything that eases the crisis. Glass-Steagall could have been passed months ago. He has no creative ideas at all. And he has no principles whatsoever in regard to the people of America.
We need a President who will FIGHT for the common citizens and produce jo JOBS!
YES!!!! I campaigned for Obama in 2008. He will NOT FIGHT for US.... He only fights for the ELITES. He MUST be challenged for the Dem. Nomination in 2012!!!
I've often wondered -and I'm NOT conspiracy-theorist- if he was told by (???) before he took office, that he could have his sweet victory and all but he'd better toe the line or -well, the name Kennedy ring a bell?
That's the only excuse I can find for his head-in-the-sand pandering to the reactionary right.
So how about Robin Williams? Qualifications: -he supports liberal causes, can play any part you give him with Chameleon-like conviction and at least he'd be really funny. ("O' a private buffoon is a light-hearted loon, if you listen to popular rumor" Gilbert and Sullivan "Yeomen of the Guard").
We need to stop looking to these spineless politicians to do anything for us anyway.
After this 14 trillion dollars in debt system collapse, We need to now think about whats going to replace it. What is clear is that from Obama to Sanders these politicians will not do what is necessary to bring some kind of equity to our society.
If Sanders had the courage of his conviction he would have challenged Obama for the nomination before Obama signed that disastrous debt ceiling bill. Obama would have to invoke the 14 amendment instead.
In a time of sanity where the MSM reports on politics honestly and not as a sport, his method could be extremely positive.
But the nuts run the Republican party, and the only sane MSM TV voices are 1) Olbermann - a sports reporter; 2) Lawrence O'Donnell - a TV writer; and 3) Maddow - a fringe member of political society. Not only is she a she, she is a smart she.
The so called professional pundits ignore those three while Obama reacts to the MSM as if they know what they are talking about. A vicious cycle of insanity leading the insane.
During these insane times, when the lackies of wealth have declared class warfare on the rest of America (and the world), our Constitution provides the executive with the ability to use the bully pulpit and demand sanity.
We expected President Obama, based on his campaign based on Hope, to advocate, and sometimes lose, a policy of change that will end the class warfare.
It is obvious Obama needs to learn that we expected his Presidency to attempt more than incremental change. As Sen. Sanders is pointing out, a challenger may be the best message to send Obama.
(Sanders is not a Dem, so cannot be that challenger)
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