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Caddell & Schoen: Hand It to Hillary, Barack


RUSH: Now, ladies and gentlemen, there's a interesting piece today in the Wall Street Journal.  And it's not the first piece these two guys have written, Pat Caddell and Doug Schoen.  Caddell, pollster for Jimmy Carter, Schoen, a pollster for Bill Clinton.  These two guys wrote a number of pieces leading up to the 2010 midterms warning Obama and warning the Democrats what was about to befall them unless they did X, Y, and Z.  And the Democrats and Obama did not listen to their advice, they did not do X, Y, and Z, and they had their lunch handed to them.  Caddell and Schoen totally predicted the wipeout that was the 2010 midterm elections.  So now they are back with a piece in the Wall Street Journal which basically suggests that Obama should quit, announce that he's not going to run, just like Truman did, just like LBJ did. 

They both realized something very important.  They realized that they probably couldn't win.  Then they realized that even if they did win, they wouldn't be able to govern because the campaign that they would have to run in order to win would be so scorched earth that they would have no ability to govern.  So Caddell and Schoen are asking Obama to do the right thing and just get out and let Hillary have it.  In fact, the piece is entitled, "The Hillary Moment." 

"When Harry Truman and Lyndon Johnson accepted the reality that they could not effectively govern the nation if they sought re-election to the White House, both men took the moral high ground and decided against running for a new term as president. President Obama is facing a similar reality -- and he must reach the same conclusion.

Here's a pull-quote from the piece.  "If President Obama is not willing --" listen to this, now. "If President Obama is not willing to seize the moral high ground and step aside, then the two Democratic leaders in Congress, Sen. Harry Reid and Rep. Nancy Pelosi, must urge the president not to seek re-election -- for the good of the party and most of all for the good of the country. And they must present the only clear alternative -- Hillary Clinton."

Now, the Schoen-Caddell plan comes down to putting the country above personal ambition.  For that reason we know that this will fail.  But there's another reason that this column guarantees Obama will not step aside.  And I like Caddell.  I've never met him, but I like Caddell.  I've never met Doug Schoen.  I like him, too, but I'm gonna tell you guys, I hate to tell you this, but the way you have gone about this guarantees Obama will not step aside.  Obama is a narcissist.  If you want Obama to step aside, you have to flatter him.  You have to tell him the office is beneath him.  If you tell Obama -- well, it's too late now.  You've told Obama that he's a failure.  This piece slaps Obama upside the head.  This piece is Obama's Selma.  This piece tells Obama he's a huge failure, that he's gotta get out of there because he's an embarrassment.  He's gotta get out of there because he's not only destroyed the country, he's destroyed the Democrat Party. 

Messrs. Caddell and Schoen, this, I'm afraid, will guarantee that he will stay.  But if you had flattered him, if you had told him that there are greater things, that the reason things are going the way they are is because he's just not challenged, this is just too small, that you can tell he's bored, you can tell he's not interested.  We all can see that he and Michelle don't like the White House.  They don't like living there.  They would rather be anywhere else.  Running this country is so uninteresting to him, so beneath his stature, so beneath his skill set, so beneath his intellect. The world is crying for a leader now, not just America, the world is crying for a leader, a leader that the United States will listen to.  Then maybe you guys coulda gotten him to quit.  I wish you'd-a called me. I wish you'da sent me a note.

I wish you'da sought my advice on this, 'cause I woulda told you how to appeal to Obama in a way that he probably would already have resigned, been so eager. You guys coulda done this, just repeat what I just said.  In fact, it may not be too late.  Write a revision piece for a couple weeks from now and just say that you've rethought it.  Don't mention my name.  You've rethought it, and he's just uninspired by how small the job is, and I'd also throw something in the next piece about how he's never gonna be appreciated.  The people in this country are so focused on themselves and their own economic circumstances, they're never gonna appreciate all that he's done for 'em.  They're never gonna appreciate all that he's tried to do.  You know, talk about all of the accomplishments that Obama has made here, all the achievements, all the things that he's done that are worth preserving.  It doesn't matter that there aren't any.  You say so.  You nevertheless say that there are these massive achievements that in order for them to be remembered, he must move on and build on these achievements.  It doesn't matter that there aren't any. 

We're talking to a narcissist here.  You've got to flatter them if you want to move 'em. You can't sit there like this piece does and basically say, "Look, you blew it. You're a failure; you're destroying the country; you're destroying the party, for the good of everybody else you --" he's not interested in the good of everybody else.  He's not interested in the good of the country or good of the party.  He's interested in what's good for him.  And poor Messrs. Caddell and Schoen here have not written a piece about what's good for Obama, and until they do, until they give it a second shot, until they do a take two and write a piece on the grand vistas that await Obama on the world stage, then we're all gonna be stuck, and he's gonna seek reelection, and we're gonna have a bloody campaign.  It's gonna be dispiriting just as Caddell and Schoen claim. 

It's gonna be the dirtiest, the most negative.  And what their point is, even if he wins such a campaign, he's not gonna be able to govern because he's gonna have lost all respect. It's just gonna be so bad.  People are gonna hate politics more than ever.  I gotta tell you, though, this is exactly what Obama wants.  He would love it if fewer people started paying attention to what he's doing.  It would make it easier to get all this destruction finished.



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