Pat F'n' Caddell To Obama: Get Your SCOAMF Ass Off The Ballot

Given that every article written urging Obama to drop his reelection bid could be said, in some small way, to increase the agitation for such a maneuver, this could be headlined,

Pressure Builds For Obama To End His Presidency

which is how the NYT would write a similar headline for an unpopular Republican president.

Silly? Who knows. Our distracted, depressive president's heart isn't in this.

Caddell and Schoen want Hillary substituted for President No Mas.

If President Obama were to withdraw, he would put great pressure on the Republicans to come to the table and negotiate—especially if the president singularly focused in the way we have suggested on the economy, job creation, and debt and deficit reduction. By taking himself out of the campaign, he would change the dynamic from who is more to blame—George W. Bush or Barack Obama?—to a more constructive dialogue about our nation's future.

Even though Mrs. Clinton has expressed no interest in running, and we have no information to suggest that she is running any sort of stealth campaign, it is clear that she commands majority support throughout the country. A CNN/ORC poll released in late September had Mrs. Clinton's approval rating at an all-time high of 69%—even better than when she was the nation's first lady. Meanwhile, a Time Magazine poll shows that Mrs. Clinton is favored over former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney by 17 points (55%-38%), and Texas Gov. Rick Perry by 26 points (58%-32%).

But this is about more than electoral politics. Not only is Mrs. Clinton better positioned to win in 2012 than Mr. Obama, but she is better positioned to govern if she does. Given her strong public support, she has the ability to step above partisan politics, reach out to Republicans, change the dialogue, and break the gridlock in Washington.

That would be an interesting play, catching us a little off-guard, as we chose our nominee with the belief we'd be in a very favorable election cycle, given the weakness of the incumbent's record, only to find out the incumbent won't be obliging us.

Still a lower-probability thing, I think, and I actually even credit this as a a genuine non-trivial possibility. Obama would have to be sure he'd lose before his best ego-preserving move became dropping out. Otherwise his ego would insist he try to become a two-termer, even though his heart really just wants some well-paid NGO sinecure where he gets validated by his dwindling number of fans on college campuses every couple of weeks.

posted by Ace at 09:58 AM

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