This story raises the question:
Ralph Nader, the consumer advocate and perennial third-party presidential candidate, announced last month that he would work to find a Democrat to challenge President Barack Obama in 2012. Nader now says that a primary challenge is a near certainty. “What [Obama] did this week is just going to energize that effort,” Nader promised in an interview with The Daily Caller. “I would guess that the chances of there being a challenge to Obama in the primary are almost 100 percent.”
As someone who believes every pol should face a primary challenge, be they my favorite or not, let me explain my take on why I won't support a primary challenge to President Obama.
First, it is important to consider the purposes of such a challenge. In non-Presidential races, in my view, it is either to attempt to get a more progressive pol in office (the challenge to Lieberman is my example) or to put pressure on a sitting officeholder to adopt more progressive views (the challenge to Jane Harman is my example.) One other possible purpose would be to discipline an especially egregious officeholder (the challenge to Blanche Lincoln is my example here.)
A challenge to a sitting President is a different type of primary challenge. First, a President does not operate in a discrete electoral district - he will not be, in most cases, and certainly in this case, a less progressive outlier to his district. This is important for two reasons - First, a President is not likely to modify his behavior to respond to a non-serious challenge. Second, you are not going to replace a sitting President as a nominee. Thus, for me, any challenge to President Obama would not serve either plausible purpose for a progressive primary challenge.
How about a disciplining primary challenge? These generally do not work at the Presidential level. Further, unlike Blanche Lincoln, where challenging her had no potential negative impact on who would hold the seat (Lincoln was a dead duck), this is not true with President Obama - who is neither a dead duck nor a shoo in. I will not support cutting off my nose to spite my face.
Am I proposing throwing up my hands on pressuring President Obama from the Left? I suppose I am. He will not heed the pressure anyway. I believe the pressure points for progressives will be at the Congressional level. I will support almost all primaries there, for my favorites and non-favorites, absent some negative consequence.
President Obama will decide, on the advice of his political counselors, how much he needs to tack Left, if at all, on policy. I don't think a primary challenge will affect that. I think that is not true for Congressional Dems. I think efforts at the Congressional level could bear fruit.
Call me a Pragmatic Progressive if you like. Or a sell out. Either is fine.