Reply #52: I'm old enough to have seen the "out there" wing of the party do it to Carter, then to Clinton

[HamdenRice]

then Al ("same as Bush") Gore, and they'll do it to Obama. Happens every time. In fact, you can go back as far as Humphrey's run in 68.

I'm not sure what to call the "wing" because it's not exactly "left", but more like "unrealistically purist" or maybe the "Naderists."

They wound the party leader's standing so badly, that even an unpopular Repug party can knock him off.

Considering that this "Naderist wing" of the Democrats could knock of Carter just a few years after Watergate, you can see that as bad shape as the Repugs are in now, these same forces can weaken Obama enough to let some idiot like Palin in by 2012.