wretchard:

If conservatives keep on getting depressed, the principal opposition to the Obama administration may come from Democratic ranks instead of the Republican Party. It may get to the point where any challenge Obama faces within the Democratic Party in 2012 may very well be more intense than any challenge from a Republican.

Let’s face it. If the image people see of conservatism is one of misogyny that blames the fall of western civilization upon the empowerment of women, promiscuity with using the word “treason”, and advocating Jacksonian apartheid, that image of conservatism is President Obama wants people to see. President Obama’s perception of people from the American interior may come straight out of Hee Haw. Still, the issue should not be about how disliked he is by many Americans, but rather about illustrating how President Obama is fundamentally out of touch with the realities of ordinary Americans.

Whatever else can be said about Mrs. Clinton, she showed that it is theoretically possible for a relatively right wing candidate to win the Democratic nomination through the primaries. Add to that a sufficient number of activists willing to crash the caucuses, and President Obama could be faced with the options of either accepting defeat at the hands of a conservative “Democratic” insurgency or bolting his own party the way Ariel Sharon did in Israel and forcing a three way race in 2012. Such possibilities ought to give the Republican establishment pause for thought.