and hence should not seek reelection in 2012. At least that’s what Douglas Schoen and Patrick Caddell are saying at the WaPo:
One and done: To be a great president, Obama should not seek reelection in 2012
This is a critical moment for the country. From the faltering economy to the burdensome deficit to our foreign policy struggles, America is suffering a widespread sense of crisis and anxiety about the future. Under these circumstances, Obama has the opportunity to seize the high ground and the imagination of the nation once again, and to galvanize the public for the hard decisions that must be made. The only way he can do so, though, is by putting national interests ahead of personal or political ones.
To that end, we believe Obama should announce immediately that he will not be a candidate for reelection in 2012.
If the president goes down the reelection road, we are guaranteed two years of political gridlock at a time when we can ill afford it. But by explicitly saying he will be a one-term president, Obama can deliver on his central campaign promise of 2008, draining the poison from our culture of polarization and ending the resentment and division that have eroded our national identity and common purpose.
Schoen & Cadell are calling Obama’s bluff:
Obama himself once said to Diane Sawyer: “I’d rather be a really good one-term president than a mediocre two-term president.” He now has the chance to deliver on that idea.
Basically what Schoen & Cadell are saying is that Obama should go for broke. Neither Schoen nor Cadell realize that the reason the midterm election turned out the way it did is that Obama, along with Pelosi’s Congress, had already gone for broke – and the people won’t have it.
Ed Driscoll looks at then and now, while Another Black Conservative has the visuals:
