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The Spectacle Blog
Democratic pollsters Doug Schoen and Pat Caddell are out with a new op-ed today in the Washington Post arguing that the only way for Obama to become a great president is to announce that he won’t seek reelection.
First, some context. Schoen and Caddell, who often appear on Fox News, are viewed by liberals the way conservatives view the likes of David Brooks and David Frum. That is, people who get attention for going after their “own side,” even if it isn’t clear that they’re still on that side. That said, Caddell polled for Jimmy Carter and Schoen polled for Bill Clinton, and their warnings against Democrats have at times proved prescient. In March, they were attacked by Media Matters as “Fox News Democrats” for cautioning that Democrats would face “unmitigated disaster” in the midterms if they rammed through the overwhelmingly unpopular national health care legislation. We now know how that turned out.
In today’s column, they make the case that if Obama were to announce he isn’t running for reelection, that it would allow him to return to the image he had of being a post-partisan, above the fray leader, during the 2008 campaign. That would help ease the gridlock and allow him to work with Republicans and Democrats to work on the nation’s problems in a less toxic manner. The problem with the column is that even if this sort of thing were within the realm of possibility — which it isn’t — I don’t think that it would be some magic bullet to usher in an era of bipartisanship. At the end of the day, there are genuine philosophical differences on these issues. And Obama is committed to his ideological point of view. That won’t change, even if some of the immediate political conflict is mitigated. Furthermore, if Obama were to announce he isn’t running for reelection, he’d become an immediate lame duck.
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More Blog Posts by Philip Klein
http://spectator.org/blog/2010/11/15/dem-pollsters-say-obama-should
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Eric Cartman| 11.15.10 @ 1:03PM
I like Pat and Doug - they have a record of intruding on Democrat acid trips with reality. They should watch their backs from now on, though. The Democrats are having a bad high and are stumbling around the kitchen with the butcher knife looking for the monsters who just stole their bong.
Justin| 11.15.10 @ 1:27PM
If he does run, he will certainly test the record set by Alf Landon in 1936 and followed by Mondale in 1984.
Saying that Obama has lost the consent of the people is a severe understatement, but I'm at a loss as how one could really emphasize that any further. He's really going to be the worst President in US history.
Oldefarte| 11.15.10 @ 1:29PM
Philip, I seriously can't believe that these pollsters' statements were nothing but wishful thinking, since Obama [and Pilosi] is obviously an extreme ideologue, and is only interested in his own narcissist viewpoints. There's a greater chance that the Buffalo Bills will be in this year's Super Bowl than of Obama announcing his resignation!!!!!!!
Oldefarte| 11.15.10 @ 3:15PM
Another thing is that Obama [and Pilosi] has now destroyed the Democratic Party by purging the last remnants of moderation from its ranks. Previously, they contained the moderates [the Clinton faction] and the liberals [the Kennedy/Obama/Pilosi faction]. Clinton won the presidency under the mantra that only his faction could do so, and correspondingly the liberal faction could not. Teddy Kennedy's dying wish was a recapture of the party with his support of Obama. The result of same in the last two years has been a complete revulsion of the liberalization of the Democratic Party by American voters by its rejection of Obama/Pilosi/Democrats!!!!!
ggoblue| 11.15.10 @ 1:41PM
he could do it, then get credit when republicans save the economy, and then renege and run after all.
other than that, he won't do it.
Richard| 11.15.10 @ 1:47PM
I cannot think of any presidential-sized disaster to equal the debacle of Obama's November run, and that in just the first two weeks of the month The recent referendum on his presidency delivered a resounding repudiation of his ideology, policies and governance. His vacuous statements immediately after the election and since clearly reveal a man who is entirely disconnected from reality and unable to fathom the root causes of his huge defeat. He fled overseas to seek ego-gratification, and was roundly punched out by every other major industrialized nation and again, repudiated. And once again, he refused to recognize his defeat, let alone acknowledge any setback, instead claiming (in typical narcissist fashion) that HIS footprint continues to grow on the international stage. My God, do we need any further evidence that this man is totally unfit for the White House?
thirteen28| 11.15.10 @ 1:51PM
Translation: these two pollsters know what an unmitigated disaster Obama is for the Democratic party, and would like to limit the damage.
toadold| 11.15.10 @ 2:15PM
IMHO it is too late for any kind of working relationship to be achieved between the Republicans and the Democrats. There are too many angry and grudge bearing Republicans in or comming into the legislature now. Too many have been worked over by "bi-partisan" Democrats or "go-along to get-along" RINO's. There are too many bent noses, mangled hands, and worst of all monies lost in the last four years. Obama and his can make all the "gestures" that they want but in my opinion it is too, too late.
Bob Miller| 11.15.10 @ 3:33PM
For its own sake, the nation should buy out Obama'a and Biden's contracts and start a new election campaign now.
Erica| 11.15.10 @ 3:44PM
GMU professor Mark Rozell recently published an op-ed with Paul Goldman in the Baltimore Sun about the possibility of Obama not running for a second term if he truly wanted to be a "great" president. Rozell and Goldman address the trend of unsuccessful second terms in the modern era. They argue that if Obama doesn't seek re-election he'll have moral clout in the future instead of a very probable political failure of a second term. That being said, I don't think it is at all likely that Obama would consider not running for reelection. Politicians are politicians for a reason, for a lot of reasons - sadly, moral clout is rarely one of those reasons.
Here's the link to the Rozell and Goldman op-ed: http://www.baltimoresun.com/ne.....6535.story