Russ Feingold’s work on behalf of civil liberties and government integrity in the U.S. Senate has attracted the admiring notice of people outside his home state of Wisconsin, and a number of those people are talking about him as a presidential candidate for 2012. A sample…
Of the remaining Democrats on the list, only three remain who might actually be goaded into running for president in 2012 against Obama. The others previously put forth, with the exception of perhaps Sheehan and McKinney, will never be convinced to run for anything, let alone president, and so shall not be included as potential Democrat challengers.
1. Dennis Kucinich
2. Russ Feingold
3. Richard TrumkaThose three are your best options, and the ones left-wing Democrats should be focusing their energies on. To waste even a second trying to recruit the likes of Jane Hamsher, Paul Krugman, and Jon Stewart is to fail to take efforts to find a real primary challenger seriously.
Should Russ Feingold run a third-party campaign for President in 2012? I’d be down with that…. Beyond being the only senator to vote against the Patriot Act, and one of a minority within his own party to oppose the 2002 Iraq war vote, Feingold also voted against the bailout in 2008. Sure, he’s got a spot or two on his record, but, it would be hard to do better with a name candidate.
Russ Feingold’s Chief of Staff has come out to declare the contrary:
“Senator Feingold is not running for president in 2012. Any suggestion he is thinking of running, planning to run, or interested in running is untrue,” said Mary Irvine, Feingold’s chief of staff. “Senator Feingold is a strong supporter of President Barack Obama and wants to see him reelected in 2012.”
But as Brian O’Connor indicates, Russ Feingold himself has noticeably not denied 2012 presidential run plans:
But Feingold himself is not coming out and denying the rumors.
Which leads one to believe,
If they ask, he will run.
What is with the Democratic Party? Someone has to have the guts to challenge Obama. I have always been a hard core democrat and lean to the liberal side and will never vote for a republican but with Obama as our President, who needs a republican? I will vote for an independent or none of the above if he is the only choice. The rest of the ticket I will vote Democrat all the way. Obama deceived us all. He cannot assume that as Democrats we will cave and vote for him because we have no place else to go or the alternative would be worse. I am furiouse with Obama for throwing the democrats under the b us all the time and spitting in our faces to curry favor with the independents. So please, someone challenge him in the primary. I would welcome Fiengold, Kuccinich or Bernie Sanders.