Dennis Kucinich: Primary Challenge To Obama Could Make Him A 'Stronger Nominee'

Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) said Thursday that a primary challenge to Obama coming from a competitive candidate would strengthen the process, and probably the president as well.

During an interview with C-SPAN, Kucinich explained that while he thought President Obama was clearly likely to overcome such a confrontation, the challenge would help the president construct a more vibrant candidacy.

"I think primaries can have the opportunity of raising the issues and making the Democratic candidate a stronger candidate," Kucinich said, according to The Hill. "I think it's safe to predict that President Obama will be the nominee of the Democratic Party, but he could be a stronger nominee if he receives a strong challenge in the primary."

Rumors of a Democrat rising to challenge Obama have been passed around in the past year, especially amid fluctuating and at times weak approval ratings -- although talk of such a challenge may not come close to the speculation that faced President Clinton midway through his first term. Kucinich himself has been floated as one potential challenger, though the Ohio Democrat has repeatedly denied that he has any plans to launch a campaign himself.

Last summer, Kucinich responded to a flare-up caused by inflammatory comments made by White House press secretary Robert Gibbs toward the "professional left," saying that liberals were, in fact, behind the president, though they admittedly wanted more from him.

"I think that Mr. Gibbs and the White House need to realize that liberals support the president but the criticism is really a measure of hopes that have not been realized," Kucinich said. "We have to get America back to work. That is the key and central issue of all of this and in addition, if I might, don't forget about getting out of Afghanistan and Iraq."

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Comments

[bluevistas]

12:04 PM on 02/13/2011

I'm with you DK about primarying Obama, and I wish we had a true liberal alternative.

I will not vote for Obama again, and I hope more Dems refuse to collude with Obama in 2012.

The country would benefit from having a true liberal who doesn't suck up to coporations/Republicans.

[Sugar Lee]

12:16 PM on 02/13/2011

Won't vote for him again? Cutting off your nose to spite your face? That is so 2010 and look where that got us. And we though Clinton's brother was a hillbilly. At least he wasn't in the congress. Look for banjoes and corn cob pipes.

[hempster]

01:02 PM on 02/13/2011

I am so glad you combined corn cob with pipe right after the banjoes thing. lol

[bluevistas]

07:10 PM on 02/13/2011

no, it's not cutting off my nose to spite my face. It's called HAVING INTEGRITY AND BEING CONGRUENT.

If we don't elect better, more honest, less corporate-controlled puppets to these offices then nothing will change.

[hempster]

01:00 PM on 02/13/2011

Hmmm

[J.C. Convery]

10:56 AM on 02/13/2011

Afghanastan is not a blood money issue (Unlike Iraq) is was a legitimate security issue. As I recall progressives deplored the Afghan regime prior to our intervention but now that the big bad USA actually does something we're now the bad guys. We didnt start dropping bombs on this country until they tacitly decided to allow Al Qeda a pass while they ran jets into the WTC. Mullah Omar was even given a chance to turn over Bin Laden and he chose poorly....pinning this on Obama is the real laugh. He wanted to leave but he was advised by his security staff and rightly so that leaving would probably result in the collapse of the Pakistani government (You may recall that Taliban actually occupied the Swar Valley ,a territory within 100 miles of Islamabad at the time of the Surge)..Do you really think any president could,would or should allow Islamic extremists access to nuclear weapons?

[hempster]

11:39 AM on 02/13/2011

Ah yes. Nuclear weapons must be kept out of the hands of people who, in there own minds, are doing god's work.

Afghanastan is at this moment a key security issue. And since we're there why not help the Afghani people along. Call it "Nation Building" if you wish. I call it smart, sensible, in our best interest and by extension the entire planets best interest.

Now the bad people may be able to secure nuclear weapons, even with our best attempts to keep nuclear stockpiles safe and sound. But we do have to try. And so far so good.

My progressive friends Afghanastan is a place we need to be. Think about it.

[santelmojack]

12:16 PM on 02/13/2011

"Ah yes. Nuclear weapons must be kept out of the hands of people who, in there own minds, are doing god's work."

i can't tell who you're talking about here. no country's leaders talk more about doing god's work than the united states.

[Gaylord P Farqua]

09:36 AM on 02/13/2011

Oddly enough much of what Kucinich says and what Ron Paul says run in similar directions and both are clearly outside the mainstream of their respective parties. Democrats are racing to the center and maybe even the center right to combat the political noise on the extreme Right. Paul has a lot of sensible ideas which is anathema to the ravings of the Tea Party and the rest of the nut ball jamboree. Yes, we should go line by line in the Federal budget and dump the typically "earmark" type narrowly defined projects that do little to improve the lives of most of the people. And, yes, we should look to closing ineffective military bases and should get the hell out of Afghanistan and Iraq. Sometimes what appears to be two sides of a coin are really just one coin. The problem is that "reason" requires more than one opinion and right now we are not in a reasonable mood in this country.

[Vegan Girl]

09:17 AM on 02/13/2011

I think Obama needs to take the left more seriously. If a primary challenge results in that, I am all for it.

I have been critical of Obama but I really really think that Congress is a bigger problem.

[hempster]

11:28 AM on 02/13/2011

I disagree with Denny on the Afganistan thing. President Obama does not need a challange. What the Democratic party needs is a platform that is published on "Billboards" all over this country and democratic legislators, along with their pocket copy of the constitution, keep a copy of our platform and reference it five times a day(at least 5).

Let's let the citizery of this nation know what we stand for as a party and nation, and ask all to join us in the quest of"...a more perfect union...".

[hempster]

11:52 AM on 02/13/2011

You would be correct congress is a brick wall way more, then is good for this nations progress, to "...a more perfect union..."

Not long ago political parties had what was called a "platform" A platform is something one stands on. If you were a member of that party the platform was a committment of the party to the public at large. These days it seems the "platform" is never mentioned and for the most remains a "secret" from most citizens.


President Obama is, I think, is actually delivering a sense of transparency when he defers legislating to the congress.

[Coinyer101]

08:54 AM on 02/13/2011

Kucinich is one ,of about a 1/2 dozen congressman, that keeps me from becoming an anarchist.....,

[G52]

07:29 PM on 02/14/2011

LOL!

[Coinyer101]

08:43 AM on 02/13/2011

I'm mostly liberal,so, if there is no challenger from the 'left', I may have to swing my support all the way over to Ron Paul, if he runs. Sorry dems, but my ideas lineup more closely with libertarians than center-right dems and bluedogs.
 
The so-called 'center' and both party establishments have been corrupted to the core. The Obama Presidency has exposed it for all to see.....,
 
Change never comes from the center......,

[paulabflat]

09:06 AM on 02/13/2011

but we have cupcakes!!!

as if you asked for it, here's my take.

ron paul is just odd. his rhetoric might take a turn to the right, maybe to the left, if he should achieve the presidency. you don't know. what he says now might sound really good, but if he should magically win the candidacy and then, miraculously, be elected he won't have been elected king. none of our presidents was able to control everything that happens. being at the reins is more than a lot of lovely doublespeak.

i'm hangin' with obama. he has had a view of the big picture and i still think he can think this through. even though he's pissed me off a couple of times.

it happens.

[hempster]

11:54 AM on 02/13/2011

F&Favd. Like him, trust him, hired him, and would again.

[J.C. Convery]

09:06 AM on 02/13/2011

Ideas generally don't come from the center but political will does. The people who offer us radical new ideas often fail to see what implementation of those ideas has on the center which will ultimately approve or disapprove of a watered down version of said idea. Ultimately the center will awaken and changes will occur but politics is a game of increments and quitting becase you don't get everything you want is an abandonment of belief because you fail to get your way.


Ron Paul will never be allowed to run for president as a Repbublican by the GOP.Kucinich will never capture independent voters. These men may have great ideas but thier too extreme to be seen as the POTUS.

[dragonmaster]

08:19 AM on 02/13/2011

Since Obama long ago, through progressives under the bus- Dennis might at least give Obama some night sweats.

[hempster]

12:18 PM on 02/13/2011

Nobody went under the bus - only think so.

Here's what I think progressives need: Patience, trust, understanding there's no tooth fairy, easter rabbit or santa claus and no magic wand. Holy Smokes!

Dennis may be correct in thinking an opponent in the presidential primary may strengthen Obama. I think not. What will strengthen our re-electing President Obama, is to have the platform of the democratic party in neon across the horizon for all to see, what it is exactly, we stand for. That's what a platform is all about. Where we stand. That's Tranasparency!

Hey dragonmaster. Words have meaning: through under the bus - threw under the bus. President Obama is not god. He does what he can do with the tools we have given him. We just have not given him enough to bring to fruition the vision we who voted and supported him share. You can't expect chocolate cake when all you've given the baker is mud. And that is what we have given President Obama to work with. People of no clarity and certainally no sweetnwess.

[MileHighCityMan]

03:57 AM on 02/13/2011

Obama is lucky. Much of the left is so soft and pathetic that they will do nothing other than make abundant excuses and apologies for absolutely anything Obama or the corporate sponsored Dems do...and I mean anything. I am a part of the "left" and fully acknowledge that the so called left gets everything it deserves by collectively allowing anybody with a D next to their name who spouts some phony populist rhetoric to win their hearts and votes. Manufacturing jobs...see ya, unions...disappearing, middle class...crumbling, tax cuts for the rich...thank you, programs cut for the poor...sure why not.

I am a proud liberal and can admit that the downfall of the Democratic Party is due to weak and gutless Democratic VOTERS who will accept any lump of mud left of Newt Gingrich if they call themselves Democrats. There is no primary anxiety for most Dems because of this, therefore, they act like Repubs because we collectively let them with few consequences. I will vote for any politician of any party when they fight for working people with real actions rather than phony populist rhetoric. Obama is full of beautiful words with nothing behind them. He works for the same 2% that Republicans do because you let him. My friends on the left have no self-respect or fight in them and that's why they lose to the relentless right, even though the facts are solidly with the left.

[dragonmaster]

08:21 AM on 02/13/2011

Sad, but true. I am a liberal with a mouth. Too bad the current crop of Democrats, from Reid, to Pelosi and Obama have been such dismal failures at attacking the far right.

[Coinyer101]

08:46 AM on 02/13/2011

Good post!

[Steamboater]

03:53 AM on 02/13/2011

So what Kucinich is really saying is that promises again will be made and hope revived when hope doesn't get you anything and certainly no end to Obama's war either. We need a damn peace candidate who will vow to cut off all funding for the war to oppose Obaam in the primaries. The country is ready for that too as long as someone makes an issue of the war because the overwhelming majority of this country wants us out of Afghanistan and pronto.
　
 
 
BTW, according to the NYTimes for today’s Sunday edition, Obama’s upcoming budget cuts are:
"Two-thirds of the reductions that Mr. Obama will claim are from cuts in spending, including in many domestic programs that he supports. Among the reductions for just the next fiscal year, 2012, which starts Oct. 1, are more than $1 billion from airport grants and nearly $1 billion from grants to states for water treatment plants and similar projects. Public health and forestry programs would also be cut.
　
Home energy assistance to low-income families and community service block grants would be cut in half, and an initiative to restore the Great Lakes’’ environmental health would be reduced by one-quarter."
　
 
 
The most vulnerable get hit again with these heating assistance cuts. For those of you who thought this was BS and only a rumor when published at HP the other day, keep on giving out those free passes. Let’s see how much they keep those left frozen out warm.

[MileHighCityMan]

04:04 AM on 02/13/2011

Shhhhhhh. Don't say things that will upset the Obamapologists. It makes their relentless job of defending him under any circumstance so much harder. Let's just pretend he is a real liberal who is only hampered by those meany Republicans.

[J.C. Convery]

09:21 AM on 02/13/2011

So, looking back upon it. Within the past 60 years when did we truly have a liberal president? Obama is the closest thing you've had in the past 60 years and throwing him under the bus because you didnt get all your liberal candy and because the mostly center based electorate didn't like how Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid handled congress. It amazes me that you would join the ranks of Limbaugh, Beck and Palin because you have some buyers remorse, well the alternatives are worse.

[Coinyer101]

08:48 AM on 02/13/2011

Good post, man...,

[FatFeline]

03:04 AM on 02/13/2011

"Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) said Thursday that a primary challenge to Obama coming from a competitive candidate would strengthen the process, and probably the president as well."

Go for it, Dennis. You might even win the nomination. I, a right of center Republican, would even contribute to your campaign. (but would not vote for you).

[Ressun90]

02:28 AM on 02/13/2011

Why doesn't Dennis just primary Obama already? How silly is it for him to infer that "a primary challenge to Obama" would be an awesome idea, yet then turn around and say "Me? Oh no, I'm not doing that, nope, never." He's a coward for not throwing his hat in the ring. I'll take Obama, warts, compromises and all, over a guy who has all of the personal integrity in the world and none of the political will or acumen to ever get anything actually done.

[CANTHATBE]

06:55 AM on 02/13/2011

He was asked the question. How would you answer it if you thought the president should get a primary challenge but you were not running?

[FoxIslander]

01:35 AM on 02/13/2011

Kucinich, Gingrich...don't these guys ever just go away?

[G52]

09:27 PM on 02/13/2011

Not the same thing............

Educate yourself!

[FoxIslander]

02:12 AM on 02/14/2011

What are you muttering about? Are you sober?

[Al Nava]

12:36 AM on 02/13/2011

Obama-Apologists keep lying to every one even though the facts clearly prove that President Obama has purposely weakened/ watered-down every Progressive legislation that Progressives fought for before the GOP retook the House in the mid-term elections where Obama created record apathy levels among Voters.

Obama-Apologists are almost as terrible as the Tea-Baggers.

Why are you Obama-Apologists even on Huff Post? Huff Post was created for Progressives, not Liberal elitists who support Corporate-owned Democrats nor Conservative trolls.

[its miller time]

01:17 AM on 02/13/2011

lol

[FatFeline]

03:06 AM on 02/13/2011

HP was created to make $$ for its creators and investors. Period!

[kizzie]

12:27 AM on 02/13/2011

Bernie Sanders---the Independent,will get my vote if he runs. It's apparent the two party system is corrupt and one in the same.
No change is going to happen if we don't llok at other alternatives, and don't blow the smoke about people like me will cause Obama to fail. If he does, it's because he perform as promised.I didn't expect quick changes, but I didn't expect him to suck up to the Repubs and banks, either.
IOt boils down to principals. Bernie, rather than a dem, stood and filibustered on the floor over the outrageous tax breaks Obama gave to the upper 2%. He won my vote right then and there.

[its miller time]

01:40 AM on 02/13/2011

Compromise is not a four letter, nor is it *sucking up to*, it is what every President has done because it is required and its good for buisness. Name a President that never compromised?

When did Obama "suck up to Republicans and the Banks as opposed to compromising and doing business? What exactly did "he" do with the banks that bothers you so much?

Which of the following would you have today if Obama didn't compromised on the tax cuts?

Tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, for two years or would it be another 10 now

Unemployment insurance for millions.

START Treaty

Don't Ask Don't Tell

9/11 First Responders

Food safety bill

19 federal judges confirmed to the Bench

Money to fund the federal government through March.

[Steamboater]

04:20 AM on 02/13/2011

Would love Sanders to run but he wouldn't have a chance and especially in the general election as he is a socialist,  and as much as I admire him, no one with that official political label would win a presidential election.

[kizzie]

11:59 PM on 02/13/2011

You are probably right, but there is also enough ground swell of dissatisfied people that have finally realized nothing will change unless we make bold moves and give someone else a shot that really stands for what they profess to get done. Enough has seen through the smoke screen as politics as has been for th elast 30years.
The last real president we had was killed for standing up to power. 1963--Kennedy.

[kizzie]

12:00 AM on 02/14/2011

Sorry for my typing lately----My keyboard and fingers in the cold are not performing as wished.

[Beverly Price]

12:17 AM on 02/13/2011

typing is an agony for me....as you can see...very sorry for the typos...eeek!