Should Hillary Clinton Challenge Obama in the Primaries?

Could anyone beat Obama in a Democratic primary contest?

August 11, 2011 RSS Feed Print

With a new poll showing that 32 percent of Democrats are eager for President Obama to be challenged by somebody in his own party, is it time for a Democrat to get into the 2012 primary?

Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders said yes recently, though history frowns on challengers. Just ask the late Edward M. Kennedy who failed to knock off Jimmy Carter in 1980 as the former president faced economic troubles and bad polls similar to what Obama is up against.

[See a slide show of 10 reasons Obama should be re-elected.]

Pew was out with a poll analysis yesterday that said "32% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents say they would like other Democrats to take on Obama for the nomination, while 59% say they would not."

Pew said that Obama is actually in a better situation than Bill Clinton was before his re-election. "Far fewer Democrats want to see Obama challenged for the nomination than supported a primary challenge to Bill Clinton in December 1994. At that time, 66% of Democrats and Democratic leaners wanted to see Clinton challenged, shortly after the GOP won control of Congress for the first time in 40 years."

But who would that challenger be and could they win?

Poll: Which Democrat could beat Obama for the 2012 presidential nomination?

Tags:: John Kerry,; Al Gore,; Howard Dean,; Bernie Sanders,; Barack Obama,; democratic party,; Hillary Clinton,; 2012 presidential election

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voted for obama in 2008. unless hilary clinton wins demo nomination, i will "definitely" vote a straight democratic ticket. if ron paul, or gary johnson is
gop nomine, i will stay home.............................
'

julian stinnett of DE 5:33PM October 01, 2011

Reading the other comments, I do wish to write one more thing. While there may be racists who hate Obama for his color, and there may be a lot of them, there are many people who are disappointed in the president simply because he has been terribly disappointing. Race is not at all a factor for a lot of his former supporters; his lack of ability to inspire, communicate and lead are the reasons we have been devastated.

Elliot of NY 7:13PM September 14, 2011

I voted for Obama and I am sorry. As a better than average orator, he could have continued to sell his vision of America but stopped selling and communicating. As a "leader," he has been an absolute failure. He should have used the media to sell his vision of healthcare and his view of fixing the ailing economy. Considering his preelection talent of getting people fired up over promised change, his inability to motivate and communicate has been more than disappointing; it has been absolutely disgraceful. Sure, the changed healthcare proposals he made might have been good but in the end no one really understood the whole plan. Why didn't Obama communicate and sell? I can't be sure but I do know that the feisty Ms. Clinton would have pushed, prodded and used political know-how to attempt real change. She was an excellent senator for New York and people here in New York saw that she fought for our state and acted with integrity and was a leader. I pray that Ms. Clinton will decide to challenge Obama and will go on to win the election. If she does not challenge President Obama, we will likely see a President Romney or much, much worse. Obama has let us down and four more years of this lack of a fighting, communicating leader could be fatal. It is too late for Obama to give rousing speeches - where were those speeches for the last three years.Please, fellow Democrats, support another Democrat - any Democrat would be better!!!

Elliot Schwartz of NY 6:53PM September 14, 2011

Should Hillary Clinton Challenge Obama in the Primaries?

Could anyone beat Obama in a Democratic primary contest?

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