And If Hillary Is the Candidate...

Political consultant James Carville is undoubtedly the loudest mouth and the brightest brain in the Democratic Party. And he’s had it with Obama. Carville says he can think of only one word of advice for the president: Panic.
Here are a few of the other things he threw at the President on CNN yesterday.

"For God's sake, why are we still looking at the same political and economic advisers that got us into this mess? It's not working."
"It's time to show them the exit. Wake up — show us you are doing something."

Carville says Obama must stick to his own explanations and stop suggesting things are improving because, "evidently they are not."
"The course we are on is not working. The hour is late, and the need is great. Fire. Indict. Fight."

All that makes good reading, but there is certainly more to the outburst than trying to torpedo Obama. Carville is too smart to sink the ship without preparing the lifeboats.
And, in James Carville’s case, the lifeboats are named Clinton. He is a long-time counsel and friend of both Bill and Hillary Clinton. So, we should not be surprised that his attack came just as a new poll shows that Hillary beats Obama.

There’s the real news. Add to it the fact that Democrat Senators and Congress members are calling for Obama to face opposition in the primaries because it might renew in him the candidate Democrats voted for in 2008. And, labor union leaders are frustrated by Obama’s inability to out-position Republican leaders. John Campbell of Iowa’s United Steelworkers told the National Journal, "The president’s been too willing to compromise. He has yielded and yielded and yielded, and what has it given us?"

However, some Democrat leaders fear challenging the President because they would be seen as trying to oust the first Black President and would probably pay with lost Black votes in their own campaigns.

Others are worried that a challenge in the primaries would just further weaken the President, who would likely carry the day and be nominated but then be an even easier target for the GOP candidate.

Is Hillary up to the task? Probably, but she insists that she is out of politics for good and nothing will make her change her mind.
But, make no mistake, if Carville and others can persuade Hillary Clinton to challenge Obama, she will have enormous Democratic grassroots and leadership support. She would be a formidable opponent in the Democratic primaries, and Obama would be forced to face up to her solidly traditional and no-nonsense arguments about the future course for the Democratic Party.  

It makes my questions about finding a top-notch Republican candidate, laid out in the Wednesday, 14 September blog, even more important, because the GOP candidate would face a real adversary and not just the fading light that is Barak Obama.