Will Liberals Really Run a Primary Challenge Against President Obama?

We have this call in the past from Liberals and Progressives that they would run a primary challenge against President Barack Obama, but will they? Will the progressives in the Democrat party actually stand up for their principles, or is this just talk?

Worried the liberal voice is being drowned out in the presidential campaign, progressive leaders said Monday they want to field a slate of candidates against President Obama in the Democratic primaries to make him stake out liberal stances as he seeks re-election.

Ralph Nader warns that without an intraparty challenge the liberal agenda “will be muted and ignored,” the one-man primary will kill voter enthusiasm and voters won’t get a chance to reflect on the real differences that divide the Democratic and Republican parties.

“What we are looking at now is the dullest presidential campaign since Walter Mondale — and that’s saying something, believe me,” Mr. Nader told The Washington Times.

We have heard previous calls for such a run from Ralph Nader and US Senator Bernie Sanders (VT-I) … but is Nader finally serious and going to find a challenger to Obama? Nader and company want to develop a debate to bring attention to the Democrat Party. One would think that Obama has already done that, of course it would negative attention with regards to handling the economy and forcing Obamacare down the throats of Americans. However,  what about former VT Gov. and Presidential candidate Howard Dean? For Progressives, he would seem like the ideal candidate. With such low job approval polling numbers, one can only imagine what an internal battle like a primary challenge would further do to Obama’s approval ratings.

While the group does harbor certain concerns regarding President Obama’s policies in Afghanistan and Pakistan, his handling of the recent debt ceiling debate, and his relationship to Wall Street, they remain insistent that in offering a challenger they mean to do well by the Democratic Party. As Nader explains in the Washington Times, the group’s intent is to create debate and draw attention to the Democratic Party in the same way the GOP primary has done for the Republicans.