A New Kind of Democratic Presidential Primary

Jane Hamsher and her blog FireDogLake are attempting to field a progressive opponent to run in the Democratic primary against President Barack Obama. Hamsher and her supporters have started the New Progressive Alliance. How does Hamsher and her minions plan on finding a candidate suitable to run against Obama? On Craigslist, of course.

A process for the aggressive political organization of progressives in the US has been started called New Progressive Alliance (NPA), under the benign tolerance* of the eminent progressive blog FireDogLake. This budding organization will be looking to leverage a Democratic run for US President into rapidly growing this new organization. There has already been a poll of initial supporters of NPA to determine an ordered list of who should be invited to be the NPA approved candidate. Elizabeth Warren has won the top designation, however, like the other well-known nominees, it is currently unknown if Warren will accept. Running against a Presidential incumbent can be political suicide within a party, be that incumbent a Democrat or Republican.

However, for an NPA candidate who is fully on board with the program, committing political suicide as a Democrat is not only of no concern, but in a sense welcome. That’s because it is anticipated that any NPA approved Democrat primary candidate must, if they fail to win the Democratic Party’s nomination (as everybody expects will be the case), turn around and give their endorsement to an NPA approved progressive Presidential candidate, running under a third party, such as the Green Party, or as an independent. NPA seeks to break the stranglehold of the corrupted Democratic Party on the minds and voting behavior of the progressive electorate. Until that stranglehold is broken, being popular with Democratic Party power brokers should be viewed as undesirable for a genuine progressive, anyway.

The NPA polling, ranked in order of approval, is as follows:
1. Elizabeth Warren
2. Russ Feingold
4. Howard Dean
4. Richard Trumka
5. Alan Grayson
6. Cynthia McKinney
7. Al Franken
8. Paul Krugman
9. Dennis Kucinich
10. Jane Hamsher

The purpose of this ad is: 1) to solicit volunteers for running as a Democratic Party challenger to President Obama in 2012, in the case that NPA is not able to find a suitable, well known candidate and 2) study the feasibility of craigslist for these types of endeavors.

Dennis Kucinich would take up the offer just for attention. Kucinich would not win a single primary or caucus against the Obama campaign machine.

I'm closer to Hamsher's mind than Obama's on policy and share her frustration. I generally like to see primaries with candidates debating the issues and voters having a choice. Unfortunately, that is not going to happen.

The truth is Obama is the best active politician (Bill Clinton isn't serving or running for office) in America. No Democrat wants to get crushed by Obama and anger the party establishment.

In writing this post I see that Joy-Ann Reid comes down hard on FireDogLake.

The most aggressive anti-Obama action is to be found in three places: among an group of highly influential blogs connected to Jane Hamsher’s Firedoglake and its associated FDL Action PAC and knit together via Hamsher’s advertising network; from Greenwald, Moore and other libertarian-leaning activists who oppose Obama’s war and national security policies (which they say are too close to George W. Bush’s); and from Adam Green’s Progressive Campaign Change Committee PAC, which has spent as much time attacking the president as it has advertising against Republicans.

I generally agree with Obama on 85 percent of his foreign policy. I supported his troop surge for Afghanistan. The excerpts I read from Bob Woodward's book indicate that Obama wants to get out of Iraq and Afghanistan ASAP. I also agree with Obama on the Israelis should put land taken in 1967 on the negotiating table. Where I differ with Obama is his horrible neoliberal economic policies.

Craigslist has been known for finding hook-ups and professional escorts? Craigslist really isn't the proper venue for Hamsher and company to search for a candidate. The ad is also requesting that activists join. It will be hard to recruit volunteers for NPA without a candidate.