Would a Serious Primary Challenge Force Obama to Move Left? Or Should We Just Dump Him?

A primary challenge that would “save” Obama is what Michael Lerner, editor of Tikkun Magazine, suggests today in the Washington Post (via Memeorandum).

People who used to say, “Give President Obama more time” when the president was criticized for capitulating to the right, or who argued that Obama must have a plan to turn things around, are now largely depressed and angry. To many liberals and progressives, the president’s unwillingness to veto any measure that includes continued tax relief for billionaires is the last straw, building on a record of spinelessness that includes his escalation of the war in Afghanistan, abandonment of a public option for health-care reform, refusal to prosecute those who tortured in Iraq or lied us into that war, and unwillingness to tax carbon emissions.

With his base deeply disillusioned, many progressives are starting to believe that Obama has little chance of winning reelection unless he enthusiastically embraces a populist agenda and worldview – soon.

Lerner argues that liberals can “save” Obama by primarying him. Frankly, I’d prefer to dump Obama and replace him with someone who actually has some core values–preferably someone with liberal core values. But this idea of giving up on Obama seems to have gone viral lately, and I think it’s a good sign. Lerner offers a very liberal platform for the proposed primary challenge, including pulling all troops out of Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan, and pushing for a new New Deal here at home.

It sounds great, though unrealistic. Even the most liberal candidates that Lerner suggests wouldn’t support that agenda. Furthermore, some of the candidates he suggests are just plain silly (Rachel Maddow? John Conyers? Susan Sarandon? Alan Grayson?). But the good news is that elite liberals like Lerner are finally talking about alternatives to a continuation of Bush III after 2012. Let’s face it, whether we get Obama or a Republican, we’re still going to get Republican policies.

Could I be wrong though? Is there still a chance to prevent the Republican Party from retaking the White House and the Senate in 2012? Even a curmudgeon like Joseph Cannon seems to think so. Yesterday he discussed primary challengers to Obama, and proposed Oregon Democratic Congressman Peter DeFazio as possible candidate. In his latest post today, Cannon proposes starting a movement for a new New Deal.

A new New Deal. I like it. Where do I sign up?

Another positive sign for those of us who weren’t shocked by Obama’s betrayal of his prog supporters is that Obama himself has finally come out of the closet as a Blue Dog Democrat. As Wonk the Vote pointed out this morning, Obama pretty much outed himself back in March, 2009. From Politico:

“I am a New Democrat,” he told the New Democrat Coalition, according to two sources at the White House session….

Obama made his comment in discussing his budget priorities and broader goals, also calling himself a “pro-growth Democrat” during the course of conversation.

The self-descriptions are striking given Obama’s usual caution in being identified with any wing of his often-fractious party. He largely avoided the Democratic Leadership Council — the centrist group that Bill Clinton once led — and, with an eye on his national political standing, has always shied away from the liberal label, too….

Surrounded by 65 moderate Democrats on Tuesday in the State Dining Room, Obama was happy to portray himself as simpatico with a group of members who are largely socially liberal but fiscally more moderate to conservative.

Then on November 30, Matt Bai outed Obama on the pages of the Obama House Organ. (H/T Wonk the Vote–I missed this important article).

The body of Mr. Obama’s writing and experiences before he became a presidential candidate would suggest that he is instinctively pragmatic, typical of an emerging generation that sees all political dogma — be it ’60s liberalism or ’80s conservatism — as anachronistic. Privately, Mr. Obama has described himself, at times, as essentially a Blue Dog Democrat, referring to the shrinking caucus of fiscally conservative members of the party.

At this point, how can even the most Koolaid addled Obama supporter deny the truth? Obama is a Republican. If there is any chance at all to get a real Democrat into the White House, I say we join with Joseph Cannon and anyone else who will help out. Let’s work for real change that we really can believe in: A new New Deal.