President Obama is the Democrat nominee essentially by default. People are allowed to challenge him for the nomination, but let’s be honest, it is just not going to happen. No one would ever come close to mounting a solid challenge against a well funded and well supported (at least among Democrats) Presidential incumbent. Right?
Wrong. Last night were the Kentucky and Arkansas primary elections. Oh you didn’t know that? Don’t worry about it. Since Mitt Romney locked up the Republican nomination a few weeks ago, primaries are not interesting enough for the media to really cover. Other than a small protest vote so people can feel like they still got to support their initial candidate of choice, people are either voting for Romney or staying home because they know it does not matter.
But let’s not forget that Barack Obama is also on the ballot. Last night in Kentucky, President Obama got a run for his money against…well…against no one. 42.1% of Democrats came out to vote for “Uncommitted.” That is when you know you are in trouble, when nearly 100,000 people from your own party leave their homes to vote in a largely ignored primary to vote against you. To put things in perspective, Governor Romney was running against four other contenders on the ballot, and he still got a higher percentage than the sitting President.
In Arkansas things were just as bad. In that state the President had an actual opponent by the name of John Wolfe. Woflfe is a Tennessee lawyer who has reportedly made a career out of losing elections. Tonight may have been the closest race he has ever run!
Wolfe pulled in over 40% of the vote against President Obama. He will also be on the ballot in Texas next week, so it will be interesting to see if he will gain any ground in the mean time. And by interesting I of course mean hilarious.
In contrast again. Romney collected over 70% of the vote in Arkansas, and he was up against three candidates who were all serious at one point and have bases of support.
Some in the media assert that the reasoning behind this sad showing for the President is because white Democrats in the south simply will not vote for an African American. Give me a break! It is nice for them to try and stand up for President Obama, but can we be honest for a second? Even Democrats are unhappy with his abysmal record on the economy and more.
Another Democratic President had a similar showing in Arkansas and Kentucky in the past, and believe it or not, he wasn’t a victim of racist voters! In 1976 Jimmy Carter won Arkansas with 63% of the vote, and Kentucky with a mere 59%.
Maybe Democrats in these states can just tell a poor, on-term President when they see one?
