Obama Primary Challenge Talk Comically Innocent Compared To What Clinton Faced

[ProSense]

Sam Stein

Obama Primary Challenge Talk Comically Innocent Compared To What Clinton Faced

WASHINGTON -- When former President Bill Clinton visits the White House on Friday, both he and Obama will have no shortage of political conversation topics. Chief among them will be reversing the course of a presidency stalled out by a mid-term electoral drubbing -- a fork in the road that both have faced. Somewhere lower down the list will be dealing with insurrection within the party ranks.

While talk has been pervasive this past week over the possibility (or lack thereof) of a primary challenger taking on Obama in 2012, it is nothing compared to the chatter that surrounded Clinton in 1994.

"Privately, a number of Democrats advance this dream," the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette wrote on Christmas Day 1994. "Clinton withdraws after being badly wounded in the early primaries, the party unites behind Vice President Al Gore, and Democrats retain the White House in 1996."

A Times Mirror Center For the People & The Press poll (now know as the Pew Center) taken in early December found that "two-thirds of Democrats want someone in their party to challenge President Clinton for renomination," sparking, naturally, a bit of press coverage.

The late William Safire of the New York Times wrote with near certainty that "Democrats afflicted with can't-win blues can expect a primary challenge to the President," before floating one possibility (Ross Perot) and then homing in on another: "the respected anti-partisan David Boren (D-Okl), 52."

Boren himself fanned the flames, declaring that the president should give "serious consideration" to not seeking re-election.

Safire wasn't the only Times-man to dabble in the primary-challenge analysis. The paper ran a front-page story, authored by the venerable R.W. Apple Jr., under the headline "Clinton's Grip on '96 Ticket Not So Sure."

The next day, the New York Post followed suit with a front-page blare: "IT'S TIME TO DUMP BILL."

Frank Sesno, the former CNN correspondent, breathlessly declared on air: "Listen, I had a very, very senior member of the Democratic Congressional scene tell me this past week that he sees almost no scenario under which Bill Clinton avoids a primary challenge and, in any case, can be reelected."

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Frankly, given what Clinton accomplished in his first two years and what Obama has achieved in two years, having inherited an economy in ruin and two wars, the talk isn't commical or innocent.

[Clio the Leo]

1. kick nt

[bluestateguy]

2. In 1994-95 people were talking about a primary challenge from the Left and the Right

There was talk about a DLCer on Clinton's right challenging him and a liberal on his left flank.

People were writing him off as late as Labor Day in 1995.

[mtnsnake]

3. One of the major reasons why Bill Clinton is The Comeback Kid

is because he is married to The Goddess of Peace. I'm not kidding :smoke:

[DURHAM D]

4. All that DC pearl clutching at Sally Quinn's cocktail parties

really didn't make it out beyond the beltway. Today because of the internet their sanctimonious heaving has a wider forum.

As for David Boren - I don't remember anyone giving him a serious thought. He has always been seen as a little boy who was a jealous neighbor to Bill. He has always had an inferiority complex where Bill is concerned. I am Oklahoma graduate and when he retired from the Senate and became President of the University I quit donating. Can't stand him.