Primaries are healthy for the body politic
by digby
I wrote about why a presidential primary opponent for Hillary Clinton would be good for her and for progressives over at Salon:
The Fix revisits the infamous moment when Reid supposedly called then Sen. Obama to his office to tell him that he could win the presidency if he decided to run, thus challenging the notion that Hillary Clinton was the inevitable nominee in 2008. His comments above are therefore naturally interpreted as a new attempt to deny Clinton the nomination, perhaps in favor of Reid’s old friend Joe Biden. Parsing such comments that way is the bread and butter of such chroniclers of Beltway intrigue so it’s not surprising they’d frame it that way. But the truth is that Harry Reid may just be sincere in his belief that primaries are healthy. And even if he isn’t sincere, he’s still right.
Primaries make politicians listen more closely to their voters. It gives their voters a vehicle to exert pressure on politicians. And it helps to set the agenda. It's he only time the voters really get a chance to influence the standard bearers of their own party.
It's no knock on Hillary to suggest that the process would be better served if she were challenged for the nomination. The problem is that there isn't anyone who's stepped up to do it.
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