re: #78 Ojoe

I am getting a hunch these days that Obama will decline to run for a second term, FWIW.

US presidents declining to run for a second term
Lyndon Johnson, Harry Truman, Polk, Buchanan, Hayes, and Coolidge

US presidents failing to win renomination
Tyler, Fillmore, Pierce, A Johnson, Arthur, Lyndon Johnson

(Lyndon Johnson quit after the first primary in 1968, which he won, but not comfortable enough)

That, what sagehen wrote, and the extra boost incumbency gives the president in a general election, makes me seriously doubt that he would not run again.

My hunch would be that Obama and the democrats will make republican obstruction a major issue in the 2012 election, and that they are going to bring up reforming the senate rules. Because if the senate is having a hard time doing anything with 59 democrats, that’s nothing compared to a senate with 51-54 democrats.