In his "Special Comment" urging "progressive" lawmakers to vote against the Obama/Reid health care plan and "kill the bill" because it does not immediately "destroy" private insurance in America, Keith Olbermann went over the top—even by Meltdown standards.
He not only challenged Barack Obama's manhood in school playground terms, he also threatened the President with a primary challenge from the Left if he continued to push the current plan.
OLBERMANN TO OBAMA: Nothing short of your re-election and the re-election of dozens of Democrats in the House and the Senate hinges in large part on this bill. Make it palatable or make it go away or make yourself ready, not merely for a horrifying campaign in 2012, but for the distinct possibility also of a primary challenge.
To paraphrase Robert Duvall's famous line in True Grit, "I call that bold talk from a one-share gnat, man."
Of course. If the President wants advice about his political future from someone with his finger on the pulse, where else would he go but to a guy who attracts just under one half of one per cent of the country on a nightly basis?
So, it's worth briefly considering this threat. Where would this challenge from the Left come from? What giant of the Democratic Party would emerge to take on the first black President in his own party primary?
Keith listed his heroes in the "fight against death," as he once called the health care debate:
"I bless the Sherrod Browns and Ron Wydens and Jay Rockefellers and Sheldon Whitehouses and Anthony Weiners and all the others who have fought for real reform. And I bleed for the pain inflicted upon them and their hopes. They have done their jobs and served their nation."
And they are each on Countdown at least once a week. And none of them has anywhere near the political muscle or charisma to take on Barack Obama.
Howard Dean? To that, the Republicans say, YEEEEAAAAAHHHHH!
Remember, Jimmy Carter was as weak as an incumbent President could be, and the Lion of the Left, Ted Kennedy, could not dislodge him from the top spot on his party's ticket.
That brings us to the obvious alternative, Hillary Clinton. After all, the term "Hillarycare" predates "Obamacare" by 15 years, and had the primary season lasted another month, she probably would have been the nominee.
But despite her radical background in Chicago politics that reads like the feminist version of Obama's own, there is one major problem with this—in the 2008 Primaries, Hillary ran to Obama's RIGHT. It was the "bitter gunners" who flocked to her in reaction to Bill Ayers' pal andJeremiah Wright's prize parishioner.
The Clinton Legacy has changed to a "centrist" one; and the Clinton's are nothing if not politically canny. They know they lost the nomination that last time because they had a general election message that was not liberal enough for the Democrat base.
The only way to win the Democrat Primary would be a massive challenge from the Left. However, that would doom the candidate in the General Election. That would be fine with me, but that is not how the Clintons are going out.
Maybe the time is finally right for Dennis "UFO" Kucinich to finally break into double digits.
