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What if Obama quit?

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hypocritexposer

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I'm not talking about resignation, or just refusing to offer any proposals until after the next election. What if Obama simply decided not to run for a second term as President?

The thought occurred to me after reading Peggy Noonan's piece this week for the Wall Street Journal, which argues that Obama has already quit in a practical sense:

The phrase of the day is "new lows." It blares from every screen. The number of Americans satisfied with the ways things are going hits new lows—11%. President Obama's popularity: new lows. The Dow Jones Industrial Average this year: new lows. Maybe it will enter ordinary language. "Charlie, it's been ages. How are you, how's Betty?" "I'm experiencing some volatility, but she's inching toward new lows."

The market is dispirited. I'm wondering if the president is, too, and if that won't carry implications for the 2012 race. You can imagine him having lunch with political advisers, hearing some unwanted advice—"Don't go to Martha's Vineyard!"—putting his napkin by his plate, pushing back from the table, rising, and saying in a clipped, well-modulated voice: "I'm tired. I'm going. If they want this job so much let them have it." …

The president shows all the signs of becoming a man who, around the time he unveils his new jobs proposal in September, is going to start musing in interviews about whether anyone can be a successful president now, what with the complexity of the problems and the forces immediately arrayed, in a politically polarized age, against any specific action. That was probably his inner rationale for not coming up with a specific debt-ceiling plan: Why give the inevitable forces a target? But his refusal to produce a plan became itself the target. Reverse Midas.

Under these circumstances he could not possibly be enjoying his job. On the stump this week in the Midwest, he should have been on fire with the joy of combat, he should have had them whooping and hollering with fresh material and funny lines. But even at his feistiest, he was wilted. Distracted. Sometimes he seems to be observing himself and his interactions as opposed to being himself and having interactions. His audiences wanted to show support, it was clear, that's why they came. But there was something tentative in their response, as if they wanted to come through for the applause line but couldn't figure out exactly where the applause line was. The president was dropping his g's, always a terrible sign, a kind of bowing that assumes he speaks from a great height. He also started saying "folks" again. That too is a tell. It's the word politicians who think they're better and brighter than normal people use when they're trying to make normal people think they're normal.

Nothing says that Obama has to run for a second term in office. We have had Presidents walk away from opportunities to run for re-election. Prior to FDR, that would include every President who didn't run for a third term, of course, but there are examples in the post-22nd Amendment era, too. Harry Truman was specifically exempted from the term limits imposed by the constitutional amendment but chose not to run for a second full term in 1952. Lyndon Johnson also chose not to run for his second full term in 1968. Both men made those choices at least in large part because they had become so unpopular that they clearly couldn't win, especially LBJ. Another parallel to LBJ is the effect of having an unpopular war tied around a president's neck.

Some will scoff at the notion that Obama and his large ego would walk away from the office, but LBJ was also rumored to think pretty highly of himself. It's a low-probability outcome, but it isn't a zero probability outcome. Obama's ratings have tanked this year along with the economy, and he hasn't come up with an original thought on economic policy since Porkulus. The leaks of his rumored plan sound a lot like Porkulus II, a sequel to a flop. This gives the impression that Obama has run out of ideas, and as Noonan argues in her piece, his attacks on Republicans for their supposed refusal to pass a plan he has yet to even submit to them sounds like a man who realizes that he's out of ideas, too.

But the decision may end up being out of his hands if the political environment doesn't improve. Obama's numbers are plummeting in places Democrats can hardly afford to lose. In Pennsylvania, where Obama will top a ticket that also includes Bob Casey's bid for a second Senate term, he's either at 43% approval (Quinnipiac) or at 35% (Muhlenberg). Wisconsin turned Republican last year and a series of elections this year confirmed it, and Herb Kohl's seat in the Senate is up for grabs. Obama can be expected to drag down the ticket in Virginia (James Webb's seat is open), Florida (Bill Nelson), Ohio (Sherrod Brown), Maryland (Ben Cardin), and Michigan (Debbie Stabenow). Obama is underwater in New York and New Jersey already, two normally staunch Democratic states, both with Senate races on the line as well. If Obama runs at the top of those tickets, he might eke out victories in the two states, but his presence on the ticket will depress Democratic turnout and might endanger Kirsten Gillibrand and Robert Menendez; Democrats would almost certainly have to spend a ton of money to bolster them that they'd normally spend elsewhere.

Democrats will be looking at a massacre in the Senate, and that's not even including already-endangered seats in Nebraska, Missouri, Montana, and New Mexico, which just elected its first Republican woman governor last year. Democrats could wind up losing enough seats to give Republicans a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate if Obama chases away the white working-class vote that he's been alienating for the past two years on ObamaCare and now his disastrous economic performance. If unemployment starts rising and growth remains low in the next few months, Democrats may insist on Obama finding a graceful exit before the primaries.

And guess who that leaves with an open path to the Democratic nomination? Hillary Clinton. She can step into the void with promises to return America to the economic policies of her husband. The Left may not have much love for Hillary any longer, but she was winning the very working-class Democrats in the 2008 primaries that Obama is losing to the Republicans now. States like Pennsylvania and Michigan would snap back into place for Democrats, and perhaps Wisconsin as well. Having Obama off the top of the ticket would take some of the downward pressure off of some other Senate races, and Hillary would likely be a plus in most.

If Hillary took Obama's place in 2012, Republicans would face a much tougher electoral map. They would still have the advantage of running against Obama's record, but the GOP may not capture that disaffected Democratic working-class vote if Hillary also ran against Obamanomics and promised a return to Clintonian prosperity. The eventual Republican nominee would have at least a tougher task in winning those votes and the White House. And even if Hillary lost in a general election — Democrats lost the White House in 1952 and 1968, coincidentally both times with Richard Nixon on the Republican tickets — the Democrats might save a few Senate seats with an improved turnout in key states.

All of this is entirely speculative, of course, but it's not impossible, either. Democrats might be loathe to push the nation's first African-American President into an early retirement, but they may eventually balk at committing political suicide if Obama's numbers and the economy keep going south in the next few months. Under those conditions, even Obama might be ready to walk away without much pushing.

http://hotair.com/archives/2011/08/21/what-if-obama-quit/
 
hypocritexposer said:
I'm not talking about resignation, or just refusing to offer any proposals until after the next election. What if Obama simply decided not to run for a second term as President?

The thought occurred to me after reading Peggy Noonan's piece this week for the Wall Street Journal, which argues that Obama has already quit in a practical sense:

The phrase of the day is "new lows." It blares from every screen. The number of Americans satisfied with the ways things are going hits new lows—11%. President Obama's popularity: new lows. The Dow Jones Industrial Average this year: new lows. Maybe it will enter ordinary language. "Charlie, it's been ages. How are you, how's Betty?" "I'm experiencing some volatility, but she's inching toward new lows."

The market is dispirited. I'm wondering if the president is, too, and if that won't carry implications for the 2012 race. You can imagine him having lunch with political advisers, hearing some unwanted advice—"Don't go to Martha's Vineyard!"—putting his napkin by his plate, pushing back from the table, rising, and saying in a clipped, well-modulated voice: "I'm tired. I'm going. If they want this job so much let them have it." …

The president shows all the signs of becoming a man who, around the time he unveils his new jobs proposal in September, is going to start musing in interviews about whether anyone can be a successful president now, what with the complexity of the problems and the forces immediately arrayed, in a politically polarized age, against any specific action. That was probably his inner rationale for not coming up with a specific debt-ceiling plan: Why give the inevitable forces a target? But his refusal to produce a plan became itself the target. Reverse Midas.

Under these circumstances he could not possibly be enjoying his job. On the stump this week in the Midwest, he should have been on fire with the joy of combat, he should have had them whooping and hollering with fresh material and funny lines. But even at his feistiest, he was wilted. Distracted. Sometimes he seems to be observing himself and his interactions as opposed to being himself and having interactions. His audiences wanted to show support, it was clear, that's why they came. But there was something tentative in their response, as if they wanted to come through for the applause line but couldn't figure out exactly where the applause line was. The president was dropping his g's, always a terrible sign, a kind of bowing that assumes he speaks from a great height. He also started saying "folks" again. That too is a tell. It's the word politicians who think they're better and brighter than normal people use when they're trying to make normal people think they're normal.

Nothing says that Obama has to run for a second term in office. We have had Presidents walk away from opportunities to run for re-election. Prior to FDR, that would include every President who didn't run for a third term, of course, but there are examples in the post-22nd Amendment era, too. Harry Truman was specifically exempted from the term limits imposed by the constitutional amendment but chose not to run for a second full term in 1952. Lyndon Johnson also chose not to run for his second full term in 1968. Both men made those choices at least in large part because they had become so unpopular that they clearly couldn't win, especially LBJ. Another parallel to LBJ is the effect of having an unpopular war tied around a president's neck.

Some will scoff at the notion that Obama and his large ego would walk away from the office, but LBJ was also rumored to think pretty highly of himself. It's a low-probability outcome, but it isn't a zero probability outcome. Obama's ratings have tanked this year along with the economy, and he hasn't come up with an original thought on economic policy since Porkulus. The leaks of his rumored plan sound a lot like Porkulus II, a sequel to a flop. This gives the impression that Obama has run out of ideas, and as Noonan argues in her piece, his attacks on Republicans for their supposed refusal to pass a plan he has yet to even submit to them sounds like a man who realizes that he's out of ideas, too.

But the decision may end up being out of his hands if the political environment doesn't improve. Obama's numbers are plummeting in places Democrats can hardly afford to lose. In Pennsylvania, where Obama will top a ticket that also includes Bob Casey's bid for a second Senate term, he's either at 43% approval (Quinnipiac) or at 35% (Muhlenberg). Wisconsin turned Republican last year and a series of elections this year confirmed it, and Herb Kohl's seat in the Senate is up for grabs. Obama can be expected to drag down the ticket in Virginia (James Webb's seat is open), Florida (Bill Nelson), Ohio (Sherrod Brown), Maryland (Ben Cardin), and Michigan (Debbie Stabenow). Obama is underwater in New York and New Jersey already, two normally staunch Democratic states, both with Senate races on the line as well. If Obama runs at the top of those tickets, he might eke out victories in the two states, but his presence on the ticket will depress Democratic turnout and might endanger Kirsten Gillibrand and Robert Menendez; Democrats would almost certainly have to spend a ton of money to bolster them that they'd normally spend elsewhere.

Democrats will be looking at a massacre in the Senate, and that's not even including already-endangered seats in Nebraska, Missouri, Montana, and New Mexico, which just elected its first Republican woman governor last year. Democrats could wind up losing enough seats to give Republicans a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate if Obama chases away the white working-class vote that he's been alienating for the past two years on ObamaCare and now his disastrous economic performance. If unemployment starts rising and growth remains low in the next few months, Democrats may insist on Obama finding a graceful exit before the primaries.

And guess who that leaves with an open path to the Democratic nomination? Hillary Clinton. She can step into the void with promises to return America to the economic policies of her husband. The Left may not have much love for Hillary any longer, but she was winning the very working-class Democrats in the 2008 primaries that Obama is losing to the Republicans now. States like Pennsylvania and Michigan would snap back into place for Democrats, and perhaps Wisconsin as well. Having Obama off the top of the ticket would take some of the downward pressure off of some other Senate races, and Hillary would likely be a plus in most.

If Hillary took Obama's place in 2012, Republicans would face a much tougher electoral map. They would still have the advantage of running against Obama's record, but the GOP may not capture that disaffected Democratic working-class vote if Hillary also ran against Obamanomics and promised a return to Clintonian prosperity. The eventual Republican nominee would have at least a tougher task in winning those votes and the White House. And even if Hillary lost in a general election — Democrats lost the White House in 1952 and 1968, coincidentally both times with Richard Nixon on the Republican tickets — the Democrats might save a few Senate seats with an improved turnout in key states.

All of this is entirely speculative, of course, but it's not impossible, either. Democrats might be loathe to push the nation's first African-American President into an early retirement, but they may eventually balk at committing political suicide if Obama's numbers and the economy keep going south in the next few months. Under those conditions, even Obama might be ready to walk away without much pushing.

http://hotair.com/archives/2011/08/21/what-if-obama-quit/



President Obama is not a quitter, like sarah palin is. why in the world would a teaparty terrorist want to vote for a quitter like palin anyway?
 
Your Messiah may not be a "quitter", per se, but, IMHO, voting "present" over a hundred times as a state senator tells me he's as wishy washy as they come. No cajones. Zero, zilch, nada.

GW went home to his Texas ranch to vacation a lot of the time, why can't your guy go home to Chicago for vacation and sleep in his own bed?

Shared sacrifice, my ass.
 
flounder said:
President Obama is not a quitter, like sarah palin is. why in the world would a teaparty terrorist want to vote for a quitter like palin anyway?


as a "leader", he has quit many times.

It was 3 yrs. ago, or abouts, that I said as a manger, he would be "wishy washy" and not able to lead the nation, when it came to decision making.

At that time, and now, I believe I was a good judge of business sense and character.

He has quit already, as far as the American people are concerned. He's a narcissist and everything from here on out is about him and his re-election. Even Bush as "stupid" as he was, had the sense to vacation at his home in Texas, and not "hang-out" with the "rich" elites he liked to demonize.


Flounder, you voted for a dud!! the sooner you realize this, the sooner the US can correct.
 
:lol: "Tea Party Terrorists". That's pretty funny.................... :lol:

coming from a clone. :roll:

I don't see Sarah as having quit. She's still spreading the word and making a much bigger impact on national politics than she would have otherwise...
 
Mike said:
:lol: "Tea Party Terrorists". That's pretty funny.................... :lol:

coming from a clone. :roll:

I don't see Sarah as having quit. She's still spreading the word and making a much bigger impact on national politics than she would have otherwise...

Thje Tea Party's beliefs are a hell of a lot closer to the founding fathers principles that they set forth in the beginnings of this country. I am sure they would have called "flounder and ot the Real Terrorists"
 
Larrry said:
Mike said:
:lol: "Tea Party Terrorists". That's pretty funny.................... :lol:

coming from a clone. :roll:

I don't see Sarah as having quit. She's still spreading the word and making a much bigger impact on national politics than she would have otherwise...

Thje Tea Party's beliefs are a hell of a lot closer to the founding fathers principles that they set forth in the beginnings of this country. I am sure they would have called "flounder and ot the Real Terrorists"


the way I see it, Palin has stuck to her principles. If she runs, the right should nominate her and she will win the nomination.


If the Country votes against her and obama wins re-election, the consequences will be squarely on the shoulders of Lbierals/progressives etc.

She is much more moderate than Perry, has a track record to prove that she is against corporate cronyism, corruption, waste, and frivilous lawsuits.


Isn't that what the "left" is for? They have vetted her 6 ways to sunday and have found nothing to criticize her on, except personal character, and that is not important to them, judging by what they approve of obama for.


"obama is a nice guy"
 
Should he decide to not run I'm bettin it wouldnt take the dems very long at all to get Hillary up and running. That's a scary thought in itself. She is a helluva lot smarter than the twit we now have.

Im not one of those doomsayers that are out there. But the longer things go in the direction we are now headed, the smarter those doomsayers are looking.

Hopefully somebody with some patriotic common sense will run on a "Hope and Change" platform. The American people are losing hope and we sure as heck need some change.

I didnt think that one person could do so much damage in such a short time. I was wrong.
 
TexasBred said:
Have heard that there is some back room talk going on among some disenchanted dems who are wanting Hillary to run.


there have been since the election in 2008.


The liberals of yesteryear have been highjacked by progressives.


obama is a progressive or even further left, towards communism/fascism
 
You can guarantee if Hillary does toss her hat in the ring there will be a nasty Primary fight as Obama is not going to go down without a fight. He is way to narcissistic to step aside. He will blame all the foreign problems this Administration has had on his Sec of State and opponent HILLARY

BLAME IS THE GAME and he has proved he is great at deflecting responsibility by blaming everything on others. His Record of failure will be put off on her shoulders the minute she announces.
 
Here's the latest piece of scum to float to the surface…
A book published today by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin The Race of a Lifetime reveals that Hillary Clinton accused Obama of cheating during their historic 2008 campaign race.
This is a pretty serious charge. Let's see if the US media covers it.
Founding Bloggers discovered this nugget from the Times Online report today:


Hillary Clinton is depicted — and quoted — as foul-mouthed and consumed with anger over what she saw as the media's kid-gloved treatment of Mr Obama. She was convinced that he had cheated at the start of their marathon primary contest by bringing in outsiders to vote in the Iowa caucuses, and when it was over she was supremely reluctant to work for him, the authors claim.

How dare she accuse Obama of cheating!
What proof does she have that the ACORN King would cheat in an election.
The absolute gall of that woman.
 
Mike said:
Here's the latest piece of scum to float to the surface…
A book published today by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin The Race of a Lifetime reveals that Hillary Clinton accused Obama of cheating during their historic 2008 campaign race.
This is a pretty serious charge. Let's see if the US media covers it.
Founding Bloggers discovered this nugget from the Times Online report today:


Hillary Clinton is depicted — and quoted — as foul-mouthed and consumed with anger over what she saw as the media's kid-gloved treatment of Mr Obama. She was convinced that he had cheated at the start of their marathon primary contest by bringing in outsiders to vote in the Iowa caucuses, and when it was over she was supremely reluctant to work for him, the authors claim.

How dare she accuse Obama of cheating!
What proof does she have that the ACORN King would cheat in an election.
The absolute gall of that woman.

The racist biatch
 
And just how much has Hillary put in her little black book to take him down if she decides to get in. Her team have had 3 years of close contact with the inner circle to dig up and document his dirty secrets. It could be interesting to see a primary fight between those two and see just what has been going on behind the scenes.
 
maybe he should?? :shock: :shock:

Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Monday shows that 20% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Forty-four percent (44%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -24 (see trends).

That matches the lowest Approval Index rating yet recorded for President Obama, a level previously reached just once last September. For President Obama, 42% of Democrats Strongly Approve while 79% of Republicans Strongly Disapprove. Among those not affiliated with either major party, 13% Strongly Approve and 44% Strongly Disapprove, overall 44% of likely voters somewhat approve

I think it's the independants that you need to win isn't it?
and over 50% approval NOT 56% disapproval!
 

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