Gravel challenges Obama in 2012

OTL Mike Gravel, the quirky 2008 Democratic Primary Candidate turned failed-Libertarian-candidate, floated the idea in 2010 of primarying Obama in 2012. What if he'd done so?

Obama, meanwhile, actually won the 2012 Democratic Primary with about 88.9% of the vote.

Obama had an odd situation. 35% of Democrats beforehand said they wanted to see a primary challenge to Obama. Looking at various primaries, he only took 81% in New Hampshire, 57% in Oklahoma, 76% in Louisiana, 79% in North Carolina, 59% in West Virginia (versus a convict no less), 58% in Arkansas, and 58% in Kentucky.

And, of course, you had things like Bernie Sanders saying that a primary challenge to Obama would be a good idea (fortunately for Obama, Bernie had reelection that year).

Plus there was a whole issue where Obama came close-ish to not being on the primary ballot in Georgia. In the current Georgia gubernatorial race, Secretary of State Brian Kemp (who assumed the office in 2010) has been accused of suppressing the vote so I could see him trying to make Obama's life more annoying by handing the state to Gravel.

So what if Mike Gravel had primaried Obama in 2012 as the more progressive/civil-libertarian candidate? His big thing was being anti-war and for civil liberties, so the issues of Obama's Foreign Policy and National Security Policies likely would be front and center. Likewise, Gravel will probably just benefit as a placeholder for "Not Obama". Obama will win by a wide margin, but it'd be a Buchananesque annoyance that changes the conversation and general election I think.
 
"In August 2008, Gravel was speaking to a crowd of supporters of Sami Al-Arian (who two years earlier had pleaded guilty and been sentenced to prison for a charge of conspiracy in helping Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a "specially designated terrorist" organization)[190][191] when he was caught on tape saying of Al-Arian's prosecutor, "Find out where he lives, find out where his kids go to school, find out where his office is: picket him all the time. Call him a racist in signs if you see him. Call him an injustice. Call him whatever you want to call him, but in his face all the time."[192] Gravel was criticized for potentially involving the children of the prosecutor, and Al-Arian's family disavowed the sentiments..." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Gravel

Oh, yes, and he speaks at a Willis Carto-organized event--something I doubt even Ron Paul would do. And he's 82 years old in 2012--considerably older than Sanders or Biden will be in 2020.

This is not to deny that anyone running against an incumbent will get some protest vote, but he is hardly a menace or even a nuisance to Obama. That the latter wasn't popular in Oklahoma or West Virginia was hardly news, and his poor showing there in the primaries got little attention in OTL and would get little more in this ATL.

(I don't think the comparison with Buchanan in 1992 is valid--Buchanan got so much attention because he did well in the NH primary, which as the first gets a lot of attention--and besides, Buchanan was a media star in a way Gravel wasn't. BTW, I don't really think Buchanan hurt Bush that much. Did Paul McCloskey and John Ashbrook hurt Nixon in November 1972?)
 
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"In August 2008, Gravel was speaking to a crowd of supporters of Sami Al-Arian (who two years earlier had pleaded guilty and been sentenced to prison for a charge of conspiracy in helping Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a "specially designated terrorist" organization)[190][191] when he was caught on tape saying of Al-Arian's prosecutor, "Find out where he lives, find out where his kids go to school, find out where his office is: picket him all the time. Call him a racist in signs if you see him. Call him an injustice. Call him whatever you want to call him, but in his face all the time."[192] Gravel was criticized for potentially involving the children of the prosecutor, and Al-Arian's family disavowed the sentiments..." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Gravel

Oh, yes, and he speaks at a Willis Carto-organized event--something I doubt even Ron Paul would do. And he's 82 years old in 2012--considerably older than Sanders or Biden will be in 2020.

This is not to deny that anyone running against an incumbent doesn't get some protest vote, but he is hardly a menace or even a nuisance to Obama. That the latter wasn't popular in Oklahoma or West Virginia was hardly news, and his poor showing there in the primaries got little attention in OTL and would get little more in this ATL.

(I don't think the comparison with Buchanan in 1992 is valid--Buchanan got so much attention because he did well in the NH primary, which as the first gets a lot of attention--and besides, Buchanan was a media star in a way Gravel wasn't. BTW, I don't really think Buchanan hurt Bush that much. Did Paul McCloskey and John Ashbrook hurt Nixon in November 1972?)


Hmm okay. That's pretty bad to say the least.

Who else could challenge Obama? Dennis Kucinich?
 
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