The Barack Obama juggernaut swept into office in 2008 under the banner of change and unity, two concepts that appeared to reinvigorate the blasé and jaded section of the electorate. He was armed with a war chest of the likes never seen before, accompanied by an army of politically outspoken glitterati and aided ultimately by a waning George Bush, his predecessor.
It would be unfair though to solely credit Obama’s ascension to the highest office in the land to merely external factors. Obama is exceptionally intelligent, articulate and possesses an old-school, hands-on approach to politics that harkens back to the days of Strom Thurmond, or even, the more contemporary Rudy Giuliani – albeit with infinitely more panache.
However, as the euphoria of his victory steadily dies down, the 50-year old has had to deal with a growing number of issues that have taken the shine of his presidency. Questions about his much derided health care plan, rising unemployment rates, the direction and perceived big government approach towards the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), the Birther accusations (which many felt carries an unpleasant racial undertones) and more recently, the debt ceiling battle in the Capitol, have seen his stock plummet.
His supporters, nevertheless, claim that most of the issues that are weighing him down were inherited from the previous administration, and Obama is merely cleaning up the mess. They are quick to highlight his recent successes against Osama bin Laden, the jobs created in the two years of his administration that the Bush administration could not match in eight years, the recovery of the automotive industry following the Obama-led bailout plan two years ago – all proof of President Obama’s successful policies.
However, the biggest question among his detractors is whether Obama is capable of charting his own course and holding the country to it, as his concessionary approach is gradually being interpreted as a symbol of his indecisiveness and lack of convictions; which under the present socio-economic conditions and the Republican-dominated Congress, threatens to consign the nation into a rudderless second term of his presidency. Furthermore, the more liberal section of his support base is increasingly dismayed by his apparent shift to the center, perceived by many as capitulating to the conservative onslaught.
But Obama, in the continued absence of a credible Republican candidate, appears poised to claim his second term at the Oval Office. The resolution of the debt ceiling fiasco, the marginal success of his foreign policies in North Africa and the stabilizing crude oil prices may well give Obama the final push needed to secure his reelection.
It is rare, but there have been instances when a sitting president is challenged from within the party for a presidential nomination. Randal A. Terry’s decision to throw down the gauntlet to President Obama may be a surprise to many, but not to those that know the man.
His story started sometime back in 1986, when Terry, from his Great Buy Used Cars lot at 1020 Front St. Vestal in Binghamton, planned ‘Operation Rescue’ with Daniel J. Little, his pastor from the Church at Pierce Creek. ‘Operation Rescue’ was infamous for its sieges of abortion clinics, aggressive protesting techniques and the ‘go limp’ blockade maneuver. It elevated the previously unknown Terry into the most well-known pro-life activist in the country, and earning himself the image of a political militant in the process.
A quarter of a century and over forty arrests since, Terry is still going strong, albeit, without the radicalism prevalent during the early years of his activism. Perhaps the conviction of former Operation Rescue alumni, James Charles Kopp, for the murder of pro-choice physician Dr. Barnett Slepian in 1998, together with the heightening legal assault by his pro-choice opponents and the over 20,000 arrest of the movement supporters, forced a strategy review.
The three pronged approach that he envisioned in the fall of 1983 (blockade of clinics, counseling of mothers and shelter for the unwed mothers) was clearly not yielding the results he was hoping for. Changing times calls for innovation, and Terry did exactly that. He was reborn as a touring speaker, author and media personality, an approach that has once again pushed him to the forefront of the debate.
He took the giant leap of submitting his Presidential Form 2 Filers to the Federal Election Commission on January 18 this year and four days later said, “This campaign is about human rights, ladies and gentlemen. It will be first and foremost about the human rights of babies that are being brutally slaughtered and thrown in dumpsters and landfills. But it is also about the human rights of the slave labor force on Obama's plantation.”
By all accounts, Terry does not even hold a shadow of a chance, but there are worries that the former Republican could force Obama to alienate a significant chunk of the Democrats by publicly engaging Terry.