... The slate will force Mr. Obama to pay attention to many more issues affecting many more Americans. He will be compelled to develop powerful, organic, and fresh language as opposed to stale poll-driven "themes."
... The slate will exercise a pull on Obama toward his liberal/progressive base (in the face of the countervailing pressure from "centrists" and corporatists) and leave that base with a feeling of positive empowerment.
... The slate will excite the Democratic Party faithful and essential small-scale donors, who (despite the assertions of cable punditry) are essentially liberal and progressive.
... A slate that is serious, experienced, and well-versed in policy will display a sobering contrast with the alarmingly weak, hysterical, and untested field taking shape on the right.
... The slate will command more media attention for the Democratic primaries and the positive progressive discussions within the party as opposed to what will certainly be an increasingly extremist display on the right.
... The slate makes it more difficult for party professionals to induce challengers to drop out of the race and more difficult for Mr. Obama to refuse or sidestep debates in early primaries.
There's some wishful thinking on that list. It is probably true that if the project comes together as imagined it will compel Obama to develop "fresh language" to counter the threat, but the notion that the president's hyper-controlling team would agree to a debate with a half-dozen critics is a stretch. And then there is the question of whether multiple candidates addressing different issues could develop a message coherent enough to excite the Democratic faithful. John Stauber, founder of the Center for Media and Democracy and a frequent ally of many of the letter signers, dismisses the slate project as "a wonky idea" that won't attract the interest or engagement needed to shake Obama or the process.
History favors Stauber's point of view. The idea of positioning a primary slate against a disappointing president has been thought of before. In 1967 critics of the Vietnam War talked about challenging Johnson with favorite-son peace candidates, such as George McGovern in South Dakota, Gaylord Nelson in Wisconsin and Eugene McCarthy in Minnesota. As McCarthy's campaign took shape, however, the slate talk faded. It was so much easier to focus energy and attention on one prominent challenger.
* * *
With no McCarthy or Kennedy on the horizon today, the slate project may advance. But its backers might consider another "candidate" named "Uncommitted." Peace activists in Iowa have been organizing to attend that state's caucuses and vote not for Obama but for uncommitted delegates who would go to the Democratic convention and push the party in an antiwar direction. It's worth noting that Iowa Democrats have a long tradition of choosing uncommitted delegates -- in 1972 and '76, "Uncommitted" beat the party's leading contenders. If the point is to press Obama on the issues and to send the president and his advisers a message, the uncommitted route has appeal; it is more issue-focused and can be organized without having to contend with the question of whether a particular challenger is sufficiently "presidential."
Ultimately, however, the challenge of challenging Obama will come
down to something more than uncommitted votes in Iowa, a slate of
candidates or a very late-starting entry by a high-profile figure like
Cornel West. It will come down to a simple question: Do Democratic
voters want to fight to define the party and its presidential nominee as
a genuine champion of progressive values, or are they so alarmed by the
prospect of a Rick Perry presidency -- in combination with a Republican
House and Senate -- that they just won't go there?
The mood shifts, depending on circumstances. Obama's populist September speeches about taxing the rich and defending Social Security turned down the volume on talk of a primary challenge. But a misguided compromise with the Congressional "supercommittee" on deficit reduction could turn it right back up. "It is like a dial -- a very sensitive dial," says Lauren Beth Gash in Illinois. "But as we get closer to the election, I think Democrats are becoming less inclined to spin it. That doesn't mean they aren't frustrated with the president. But they're realistic about the threat from the Republicans, and they're worried about expending energies on an internal fight when there are important races where progressives are running that need attention."
It may well be that those important races will provide a focus for progressives who just can't get excited about Obama. Elizabeth Warren's challenge to Massachusetts Republican Senator Scott Brown has developed into a national phenomenon. And there are plenty of other down-ballot races that excite progressives: the campaigns to re-elect Senator Bernie Sanders in Vermont and Senator Sherrod Brown in Ohio, the runs of Congresswomen Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin and Mazie Hirono of Hawaii for open Senate seats, writer Norman Solomon's bid for a California Congressional seat and Ann McLane Kuster's Congressional race in New Hampshire.
But presidential politics remains a draw, not just for a punditocracy that pays little attention to other races but for activists who worry that a failure to define the Democratic Party at the highest level will harm the rest of the ticket. Of course it's vital to focus on down-ballot progressives, they say; but just as there are risks in mounting primary challenges at the presidential level, there are risks in avoiding them. "Robust debate on the crucial issues facing our nation, including global environmental devastation, should characterize all races for national public office, and the Democratic presidential primaries are no exception," says Brent Blackwelder, president emeritus of Friends of the Earth, a primary proponent. "The public needs to hear whether a second-term Obama will be like the first-term Obama, or perhaps more like the 2008 presidential candidate Obama, or something else altogether."
Blackwelder is right about the potential for primaries to give Obama definition. But he's not running at this point. Nor is Cornel West. The slate has yet to take shape. And the clock is ticking, fast. The discussion about challenging Obama is widespread and reasonably vibrant. But the challenge itself remains ill-defined and oddly ephemeral. With the prospect that filing deadlines for the first primaries could arrive in a matter of weeks, if there is to be a credible challenge it must take shape in short order, with a clear message and, more likely than not, a clearly identified, high-profile messenger. Failing that, Barack Obama will proceed to the Democratic nomination on his own terms, frustrating as they may be.
Cross-posted from The Nation
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