I'm glad somebody wrote a great diary about Matt Stoler's enlightened article about the question marks that surround President Obama. His Salon article was so thought-provoking that I wrote him an e-mail directly to fill in where he left off. My note to him follows....
Matt -
I just read your Salon article, and it is an excellent thought piece. However, I doubt it moves the needle much. Here's why...
Due to the incredible sums of money it takes to mount a credible challenge to Obama, combined with the widely accepted notion that such intra-party dissension would lead to a GOP win in 2012, nobody will come forward to run in any state, favorite son or not. By the way, this is regardless of opposing candidate....as you point out, Reagan was a lightweight hardline conservative who won easily.
There is only one way to replace the serial disappointer named Barack Obama. That's by Obama taking himself out of the race. If his poll numbers decline much further, he has to strongly consider having an "LBJ moment", and announce that he will not seek nor accept the nomination for a second term. He would do it for the good of the party and the country. We can ill-afford an extremist version of the Republican party to seize power next year of the Senate and White House, while holding onto the House. During a time of economic fragility, this could very well lead to Depression. You know it. I know it, and any serious thinker knows it. The last thing America (or the world) needs right now is a corporate victory in November 2012, which would further widen the wealth gap, ensure suffering of the masses by way of austerity, and perpetuate the high and doubtlessly widening unemployment mess.
Obama indeed could finally bring about change, but not the sort "we can believe in". His fecklessness, poor leadership and utter weakness in promoting Democratic ideals could lead to a rightwing "authoritarian strongman" to take over the White House, which would lead to one of the most self-destructive and catastrophic periods any nation has suffered through since the fascists were defeated and their nations brought to ruin in the 1940's. Indeed, extreme conservative Republicans are not far from their fascist cousins of generations ago, complete with a doctrine and dogma that would lead to economic destruction of the middle class (if not the military destruction that Germany and Italy brought upon themselves).
Please, Matt, urge the right thing to take place. Urge those you know among the opinion makers and party insiders to pressure Obama not to run again in 2012. It very well may be our only hope. He must stand down for the good of all of us.
Now, I don't know if Matt will reply to my e-mail. He certainly hasn't yet. But, I hope that he and others will start to understand that Obama has turned himself into a liability to the Democratic Party, and would do all of us a huge favor by opening the race wide open and refusing to run again. His ineptitude at promoting Democratic causes has compromised our bargaining positions again and again, and we can't afford four more years of feckless compromise against a well-organized and well-funded corporatist opposition.
Obama is this generation's "LBJ", for different reasons, and he has to leave the scene.