Has there ever, in the history of the country, been a successful same-party primary challenge against an incumbent president? I don’t think it makes sense for him to be resigning now to try to run against Obama. If that were his goal, he’d almost certainly be better off switching parties and staying in the Senate for now, and then running for President as a Republican.
Oh, I know this one! The only president from New Hampshire: Franklin Pierce.
Less ability to pass legislation that requires the vote of every single Democrat, perhaps, but there still was never a guarantee of that with Bayh, while at the same time a nasty chance of ending up with legislation that had to be watered down to get Bayh and his ilk (Blanche Lincoln, Joe Lieberman, etc.) to vote for it. The Blue Dogs do the Democrats no favors by existing and needing to be pandered to. Those concessions are more responsible for the useless muddle that healthcare reform became than any obstructionism from Republicans.
Unless Bayh is facing an as yet unrevealed “dead girl, live boy” scenario, he’s setting up a run for the Presidency.
Now that America has gotten a look at what happens when you give liberal Democrats the keys to the car, support for that philosophy is around 35 percent. Wail “cite” indignantly if you will, but the moderates are gone and you know it. The only way a Democrat is ever going to see the inside of the Oval Office in the future is to run as a center-left moderate. Bayh knows this, and didn’t want to face another six years of votes he would have to explain on the campaign trail. Retiring gives him the chance to test the waters, raise money and look like a Democrat that doesn’t regard taxpayer money the same way a cocaine addict views that handy little line on the mirror. He will trumpet fiscal responsibility, toughness on terrorism, etc…and see what happens.
They sit in the driveway and wish there were gas in the tank? And to what liberal Democrats are you referring, anyway? Kucinich got knocked out of the primaries pretty quickly.
Heck, I thought they were just doomed! You mean, they’re already dead? Man, that was fast!
Probably a reaction to Obama’s dishonesty in trying to put forth an agenda that he kept secret from the American people. I mean, outside of making it a central theme in his campaign, he carefully avoided mentioning it. If the people really knew they were voting for Stalinism, they probably wouldn’t have done so.
What is the approval rate of congress these days…25 percent? Less?
I know that people who agree with the agenda of the liberal wing of the Democrat party are passionate, but there aren’t enough of them. Nancy Pelosi can push all the Cap and Trade crap she wants, but Democrats from convervative districts who actually want to be reelected are starting to bail.
Obama’s frantic increasing of federal spending is also a problem for a majority of Americans. Bayh is just another splash in the electoral waterboarding that’s coming. Which party do you think will pick up Murtha’s vacant seat? Will another Democrat replace Bayh? How’s Harry Reid doing in Nevada? Democrats can try to find some good news somewhere…anywhere…to muster a weak “yeah, but” retort…but the liberal philosophy has been rejected. People just had to touch the stove for themselves to figure out it was actually hot.
Obama got elected because he talked like a moderate like the only other successful Democrat presidential candidate in the past 30 years did. He also benefited because the marginally politically engaged fell for his looks, tone of voice and simplistic pied piper crap. He also got a boost from those who thought voting for him was “historic”.
America is a center-right country. Obama is an aberration. The reaction to him after one year in office proves that to anyone who is capable of objective analysis.
Cap-and-trade is not an extreme left policy. Cap and trade is an attempt to replace our current socialist energy system with one based on the free market. I thought it was supposed to be the right-wingers who trusted in the ability of the free market?
Given that both candidates ran on establishing some sort of cap-and-trade in '08, it seems like a tough sell to say that it is an “extreme” policy.
Where on earth did anyone get the idea he’s going to run for president? He wouldn’t even stay in the race in 2008, when the election was wide open. Does he strike you as the type to not only challenge his own party, but run against an incumbent? Come on. I know very little about the guy except this: his father was a popular senator in Indiana, and he managed to become governor and senator himself. And he got himself into the vice presidential conversation every four years because he was from the Midwest, and one Midwest state being as good as another, the Democrats needed someone who could help in that region. We now now how much they needed his help.
So having given up on the Senate, he’s now becoming the next Pat Buchanan? I think not. Is this a good sign for the Democrats? No. This is a guy who was probably going to win even in a down year for the party. But to me, it seems more like the result of frustration than a sign of impending political madness.
When was the last time a Republican candidate lost a national election because a third party split the conservative vote? Ross Perot?
How national is national? If you’ll take House or higher, then it’d be NY-23 last year.
Oh no! That makes 5 Democratic open Senate seats. We’re DOOOOOOOMED! They’re going to build on that 41-59 majority! Oh wait a minute, there are 6 Republican open seats. Never mind.
Maybe he decided that it would be apathetic to just hunker down and “go with the flow”. Because only dead fish go with the flow.
If we’re going to extend this to potential Democratic candidates… Captain Amazing mentioned Brad Ellsworth. Maybe - but it’s a little early for him. I’d like to see Tim Roemer come home from India and run - he’s got the credentials right now. Unfortunately, today is the deadline to submit signature lists in Indiana.
What I see is idle speculation and unrelated posts about the latest thing that has occurred that could be seen as damaging to the Democrats, not a debate. Welcome to decemberville, Bricker.
Bayh made a terrible presidential candidate. For one thing, he lacks passion. The only way I could see him thinking about running in '12 is if Obama decides not to run.
It may surprise you to know that in 2008, approval of the Democratic Congress was hovering around 15 percent. And guess what happened? The people elected huge Democratic majorities.
You can go back through 13 years of data and find that generic congressional approval ratings has nothing whatsoever to do with what happens in elections.
Yes, electing a black man wasn’t “historic.” As we all “know,” all the “races” are now fully “equal” in America.
Just keep telling yourself that people have “seen through” Obama while he continues to enjoy higher popularity ratings than Bush had at any time since 2004.
A Hoosier here…
My thought is that Bayn is going to run for the Indiana Governor’s Mansion again (our current gov is term limited, unfortunately:() and then use that as a stepping stone to run for the White House in 2016. Or, if Obama really stinks up the joint, in 2012.
He’s a shrewd politican, and I imagine he doesn’t want to get caught in a flaming ship. Indiana is pretty conservative, and he portrays himself as being far more right than he actually is.
I hate him - as noted above, he lacks any kind of passion. Plus, he’s a master of weasel words…