Primarying Obama only assures Republican victory in 2012

Just look at recent history.

1968- LBJ was challenged by Eugene Macarthy, LBJ dropped out. Democrats had a bloodbath in Chicago. Nixon wins close election.

1976-Reagan challenged Gerald Ford in a bitter primary battle. Ford won the nomination but lost in November.

1980-Ted Kennedy challenged Carter in a nasty bitter race for the nomination. Kennedy supporters stayed home in large numbers or else voted for the independent John Anderson. Reagan won.

1992-Pat Buchanan took on GHW Bush in the primaries. He ran way better than expected. Clinton won in November.

If you want your party to lose the White House then mount a primary challenge to a sitting president.

It is impossible to wrestle the nomination away from a sitting president. They have too much control over the inner party workings.

The Reps have never been more dangerous. :scared:

If a Democrat had primaried FDR, would that have hurt him? Doubtful.

Primarying can only make any headway when the incumbent is already weak. Nature abhors a vacuum.

if we primary him it will give the right the ammo they need to take us down.

should run in the general. I personally doubt that will happen but if it does, it does.

85 percent of his supporters want him to lead the country for six more years.

It is an act of desperation when party insiders know that there is no way for the incumbent president to win.

1968: LBJ had the albatross of Vietnam around his neck, which also created the chaos in Chicago, which lead to defeat. Remember Nixon promised to end Vietnam. In addition, the dixiecrats were basically in open rebellion, and the post-war economic boom was grinding to a halt.

1976: Ford couldn't win because of the aftermath of Watergate.

1980: Carter was in terrible trouble long before the election, mostly because he had AWFUL media strategy....which should sound incredibly familiar to anyone watching the Obama White House.

1992: Bad Economy = Clinton win. After all, "It's the economy, stupid" was coined in that election.

Strong primaries of sitting presidents are the symptom, not the cause. Presidents that are doing terribly get primaried, but it's not the primary that weakens the president. The president's already weak.