# Cenk Uygur running for Pres
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cenk-uygur-running-for-pres/991927
**Category:** Politics & Elections
**Created:** [October 22, 2023, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cenk-uygur-running-for-pres/991927 "2023-10-22T17:08:45Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 19
### Author:  [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)
#### Post date: [October 29, 2023, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cenk-uygur-running-for-pres/991927/361 "2023-10-29T00:53:14Z")
> [@Mijin](#):
>
> But secondly, no, he hasn’t earned it. What the hell? This is not an autocracy, nobody is owed a second term.
Quick. Who ran against Bill Clinton for the nomination in '96? Or Obama in '12, Dubya in '04, Papa Bush in '92, or Reagan in '84?
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### Author:  [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)
#### Post date: [October 29, 2023, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cenk-uygur-running-for-pres/991927/362 "2023-10-29T01:01:27Z")
Quick, how is that a response to what I said?
If the incumbent is owed a second term then let’s just not bother with an election, just make it 8 year terms.
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### Author:  [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)
#### Post date: [October 29, 2023, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cenk-uygur-running-for-pres/991927/363 "2023-10-29T01:13:38Z")
Well, someone’s getting a second term. Who’s more deserving than Biden? Trump? Because there are exactly two people in this country who have a possibility of being president come January 2025.
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### Author:  [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)
#### Post date: [October 29, 2023, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cenk-uygur-running-for-pres/991927/364 "2023-10-29T01:17:35Z")
> [@Mijin](#):
>
> Quick, how is that a response to what I said?
>
> If the incumbent is owed a second term then let’s just not bother with an election, just make it 8 year terms.
He is owed by the party to back him. The country has a choice and can vote differently. Having a party fight against the incumbent is telling the voters the party made a mistake four years ago. An election cycle without an incumbent is a much different thing than a wide open race.
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### Author:  [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)
#### Post date: [October 29, 2023, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cenk-uygur-running-for-pres/991927/365 "2023-10-29T01:18:02Z")
> [@Smapti](#):
>
> Well, someone’s getting a second term.
No, that’s not a given at all.
Yes the two former presidents are the clear frontrunners at this time, but even if Biden and Trump were both at 100% in their party’s polls, neither is _owed_ anything.
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### Author:  [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)
#### Post date: [October 29, 2023, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cenk-uygur-running-for-pres/991927/366 "2023-10-29T01:22:23Z")
> [@Loach](#):
>
> He is owed by the party to back him.
No he isn’t. This is getting bizarre. If Biden isn’t the best candidate to win the election, then sorry, bye bye, it’s a democracy.
I don’t want to be in Jan 2025 watching Trump’s second inauguration on TV, thinking “Gee, why did we hamstring ourselves with a unwritten norm? Why didn’t we have a genuine contest to see who was the toughest fighter?”
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### Author:  [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)
#### Post date: [October 29, 2023, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cenk-uygur-running-for-pres/991927/367 "2023-10-29T01:25:25Z")
> [@Mijin](#):
>
> > [@Smapti](#):
> >
> > Well, someone’s getting a second term.
>
> No, that’s not a given at all.
>
> Yes the two former presidents are the clear frontrunners at this time but even if Biden and Trump were both at 100% in polls, neither is _owed_ anything.
I have a feeling explaining isn’t going to do any good.
This is about the nomination not the election. The primary is about party not the general voting public.
Biden earned the nomination by winning and being president. He earned the backing and loyalty of the party by being the head of the party. If the party wants to win they have to support their leader.
Who ever wants to run against Biden has to earn that with the Republican Party. By losing Trump has to earn it all over again.
Nobody has earned the presidency until the votes have been counted next year.
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### Author:  [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)
#### Post date: [October 29, 2023, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cenk-uygur-running-for-pres/991927/368 "2023-10-29T01:33:30Z")
> [@Mijin](#):
>
> Why didn’t we have a genuine contest to see who was the toughest fighter?”
And who would that be? There’s a reason the list of names running against Biden is full of people named Phillips and Williamson and not people named Newsom, Pritzker, or Orcasio-Cortez. In a functional party, one does. NOT. Primary. An. Incumbent. President.
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### Author:  [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)
#### Post date: [October 29, 2023, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cenk-uygur-running-for-pres/991927/369 "2023-10-29T01:34:53Z")
> [@Loach](#):
>
> I have a feeling explaining isn’t going to do any good
I share that feeling because what followed was not a good argument.
For biden’s great work, he’s earned all the plaudits in the world. I joined in celebrating his achievements upthread, unprompted. Let’s make a frickin golden Biden statue.
But no, nobody has an _entitlement_ here. If Biden looks like a losing candidate this time, then the party needs to man up. Worrying about hurting Joe’s feelings is the dumbest possible excuse for permitting a despot to take the white house.
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### Author:  [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)
#### Post date: [October 29, 2023, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cenk-uygur-running-for-pres/991927/370 "2023-10-29T01:38:28Z")
> [@Mijin](#):
>
> If Biden looks like a losing candidate this time, then the party needs to man up. Worrying about hurting Joe’s feelings is the dumbest possible excuse for permitting a despot to take the white house.
“If.”
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### Author:  [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)
#### Post date: [October 29, 2023, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cenk-uygur-running-for-pres/991927/371 "2023-10-29T01:42:41Z")
> [@Mijin](#):
>
> If Biden looks like a losing candidate this time, then the party needs to man up.
The party needs to “man up” and do what exactly?
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### Author:  [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)
#### Post date: [October 29, 2023, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cenk-uygur-running-for-pres/991927/372 "2023-10-29T01:44:58Z")
“And vote for a junior congressman from Minnesota with no name recognition because “BIDEN OLD”” seems to be the unspoken part.
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### Author:  [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)
#### Post date: [October 29, 2023, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cenk-uygur-running-for-pres/991927/373 "2023-10-29T02:29:59Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#):
>
> I’ll weep for the coming Trump victory.
America will not be “weeping”.
[ ](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/54/63/c9/5463c947fa14655aa199d1002985e6de.jpg)
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### Author:  [@Hatchie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hatchie)
#### Post date: [October 29, 2023, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cenk-uygur-running-for-pres/991927/374 "2023-10-29T03:06:18Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#):
>
> But, he got Rep. Jim Clyburn’s endorsement, won big in SC, and the rest was history.
Yipes, when I mentioned John Conyers before (twice), I meant Jim Clyburn.
In my defense, I’ve been to neither Michigan nor South Carolina.
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### Author:  [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)
#### Post date: [October 29, 2023, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cenk-uygur-running-for-pres/991927/375 "2023-10-29T03:52:26Z")
> [@Mijin](#):
>
> But no, nobody has an _entitlement_ here. If Biden looks like a losing candidate this time, then the party needs to man up. Worrying about hurting Joe’s feelings is the dumbest possible excuse for permitting a despot to take the white house.
What it looks like is Biden is the one who beat Trump. No entitlement just facts. Not one person talked about hurting Biden’s feelings. I don’t know where you got that from. Right now the Republicans are the fractured party. A primary fight is going to take away that advantage. There are way too many parallels with Carter to want to go down that road. If you don’t want Trump support Biden. There is no one else who can do anything except ruin his chances.
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [October 29, 2023, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cenk-uygur-running-for-pres/991927/376 "2023-10-29T05:08:37Z")
> [@Mijin](#):
>
> I don’t want to be in Jan 2025 watching Trump’s second inauguration on TV, thinking “Gee, why did we hamstring ourselves with a unwritten norm? Why didn’t we have a genuine contest to see who was the toughest fighter?”
And I don’t want to be watching Trump’s second inauguration on TV, thinking “Gee, maybe we shouldn’t have punched Joe Biden in the stomach right before he got in the ring to fight Trump.”
We want Biden to be as strong as possible when he goes against Trump or whoever the Republican candidate is in the general election. Attacking Biden in the primaries does the opposite of that.
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### Author:  [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)
#### Post date: [October 29, 2023, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cenk-uygur-running-for-pres/991927/377 "2023-10-29T06:28:01Z")
> **[Top Democrats dismiss worries about Biden’s reelection bid as Phillips...](https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/28/politics/biden-reelection-worries-dean-phillips/index.html)**
>
> President Joe Biden is just as low in the White House’s internal polls as in any of the public ones. Whenever aides stress over the numbers in their weekly political meetings, Mike Donilon — for decades, Biden’s top political...
> **[Opinion: There may be more to Dean Phillips’ “moon shot” presidential bid...](https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/28/opinions/dean-phillips-president-campaign-biden-wierson/index.html)**
>
> One of the biggest head-scratchers in national politics as of late is the insurgent candidacy of Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips for the Democratic presidential nomination, an idea he had been publicly toying with for several months,...
Here’s something I didn’t know; Dean Phillips is the grandson of Pauline Phillips, the original Dear Abby.
Maybe he should learn how to take advice.
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### Author:  [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)
#### Post date: [October 29, 2023, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cenk-uygur-running-for-pres/991927/378 "2023-10-29T10:58:40Z")
> [@crowmanyclouds](#):
>
> The party needs to “man up” and do what exactly?
Have an actual primary.
> [@Little\_Nemo](#):
>
> And I don’t want to be watching Trump’s second inauguration on TV, thinking “Gee, maybe we shouldn’t have punched Joe Biden in the stomach right before he got in the ring to fight Trump.”
Has Trump been weakened by the primary contest? Really, I think the fact that everyone here tacitly acknowledges that a primary contest would be damaging to Biden says all that needs to be said here.
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### Author:  [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)
#### Post date: [October 29, 2023, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cenk-uygur-running-for-pres/991927/379 "2023-10-29T11:07:53Z")
> [@Mijin](#):
>
> Have an actual primary.
Are there any actual candidates?
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### Author:  [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)
#### Post date: [October 29, 2023, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cenk-uygur-running-for-pres/991927/380 "2023-10-29T11:14:17Z")
Exactly.
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