Just so you know… Russ Feingold, Dennis Kucinich, Hoard Dean, and Hillary Clinton have denied any intentions on challenging Barack Obama for the 2012 Presidential elections.  Hillary Clinton appears to have to deny future presidential ambitions in every country she speaks in — though, I guess the suggestion tends to run to 2016.

Russ Feingold had to deny any intention on running after this comment from Lindsey Graham.:
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) suggested Thursday that Feingold might fit the profile of such a candidate, telling conservative radio talk show host Laura Ingraham that “I like Russ, and he may run against Obama in 2012.”

Such speculation apparently began with Russ Feingold’s concession speech, see here.

It’s been a week since Sen. Russ Feingold (D) of Wisconsin lost his bid for a fourth term and concluded his concession speech with a ripsnorting call to action: “It’s on to the next fight. It’s on to the next battle. It’s on to 2012!”

Was Senator Feingold hinting that he may run for president, presumably in a Democratic primary challenge against President Obama? Or perhaps he was thinking the other senator from Wisconsin, Herb Kohl (D), may retire in 2012, and Feingold might compete for that seat? Or maybe he wasn’t thinking all that specifically, and just having a Howard Dean moment. Hard to believe it’s been almost seven years since the onetime Democratic presidential candidate delivered his famously over-exuberant concession speech in Iowa that ended with a screaming “Yeah!”

Or maybe the political chattering class is full of it, parsing and pilfering.  There is, I have seen bandled about, rumors of Feingold taking over for a rumored retiring Kohl — but to speculate on it is to contribute to the same “Feingold for President” talk.

Naturally.  Stick it next to your “Ron Paul 2016” materials.

Dennis Kucinich for President has a facebook page, which garners this attention:
Normally, I wouldn’t pay a simple Facebook group any such heed, but Dennis Kucinich’s official profile is an admin on the group.
Surely new cafe press style merchandise will be plopping out soon.

Howard Dean will not be running for President, even though John Fund at the Wall Street Journal speculated about the possibility.

Vermont’s former governor Howard Dean dispeled rumors on Thursday that he would challenge President Obama in the 2012 Democratic Primary.
The controversy started after a Wall Street Journal columnist wrote a think piece speculating what it may mean for the Obama team if the republicans win control of one or both chambers of Congress. From there things spiraled out of control in a world of viral media.
John Fund of the Wall Street Journal wrote an op-ed piece on election day. The piece questioned if republicans took control of Congress, would Obama compromise with them and would that further dissatisfy progressive democrats enough to have someone from the left run against the president in the primary?
Eric Davis is a political analyst. He said Fund goes on to hypothesize a few likely candidates for the job.

Crooks and Liars:

That does it. Obama needs to face a strong primary challenger. And no, I don’t care if it costs the Democrats the White House in 2012. Obama had a golden opportunity to have an actual victory — the first he’s had since he killed that fly back in 2009 — and he’s flushing it down the crapper. We cannot have this guy representing us anymore. He is too weak to lead.

Expect to see that pop up from time to time.
At the moment, Alvin Greene is the most credible Democratic opponent who has made definite moves to run.
But we can always go the 3rd Party and Independent route.  Rutherford Hayes is running.

On the Elephant side of the ledger, Everyone and their brother is said to be considering a Republican challenge.  That should be some massively crowded debate.  The “actual”ities break down in rather odd alignments.  The front-runner is either Sarah Palin or Mitt Romney, depending on how you guage the electorate — which may mean that you can bracket the race (as David Frum has) as “Politicans” versus “Media Stars” — with Romney leading the Politicians and Palin leading the Media Star bracket.  John Thune, meantime, leads the anonymity bracket.

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) did a little less dancing. “I just think, if [Obama] caves on this, then I think that he’s gonna have a lot of swimming upstream [to do],” said the Iowa Democrat, a unabashed progressive who has been less reticent than most in criticizing the White House. “He campaigned on [allowing the rates for the rich to expire], was very strong on that, and sometimes there are things that are just worth fighting for.”

And if he decided to compromise away from that, a reporter asked the senator.

“He would then just be hoping and praying that Sarah Palin gets the nomination,” Harkin replied, insinuating that there would be few other Republicans that Obama could assuredly beat in 2012.
To be sure, a Sarah Palin nomination increases the chances of a Sarah Palin presidency.

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