The FDL 10: Oh For Frak's Sake, Guys

People have asked me not to use the term "Firebaggers" to describe the contingent of the anti-Obama progressive left that believes we have to get rid of the current administration and primary the President in 2012.  But crap like this makes it really, really hard not to do this.

The New Progressive Alliance has begun contacting prospective challengers to Barack Obama for the 2012 Democratic Party presidential nomination.
 

A new and growing organization, the NPA is dedicated to shifting the electoral paradigm in America from one that is largely closed, and in which voters are given only two choices – bad and worse, and both beholden to for-profit conglomerates – to a truly open system which enables genuine social democracy.
 

As the first of its two-stage strategy for achieving this goal, the NPA is actively seeking a 2012 primary challenger who will commit to turning the electoral process, as we know it, on its head.
 

Readers of the progressive blog “MyFDL” chose ten current and former Democrats as prospective primary challengers to Mr. Obama last fall. Elizabeth Warren placed first, followed by Russ Feingold, Howard Dean, Richard Trumka, Alan Grayson, Cynthia McKinney, Al Franken, Paul Krugman, Dennis Kucinich, and Jane Hamsher.

Yes.  This is the list of people that they think can A) beat Obama in a primary and B) win a national Presidential election.   Don't get me wrong, I have great respect for some of the people on that list.  Krugman is a hell of an economist and columnist.  Alan Grayson was certainly a needed voice in Congress and I'll miss him, and Al Franken certainly is a powerful force for change in the Senate, badly needed at that.  We need Russ Feingold back in the Senate replacing Herb Kohl for precisely that reason, too.


But I am under no illusions that any of these folks -- especially Jane Hamsher -- could ever keep the White House out of GOP hands right now.  And that's the most important part.  This is nothing more than the political equivalent of fantasy football or "Who would play you in the movie version of your life?"  It's not going to happen, people.


And the more energy we devote to unrealistic distractions like this, the less energy we have to help Obama defend this country against people like Gingrich, Romney, Huckabee, Ron Paul, and God help us, Sarah Palin or Michele Bachmann in 2012.


Wake up, people.  Get a clue.  We don't have time for this bullshit.