{"id":8642,"date":"2011-08-03T19:18:13","date_gmt":"2011-08-04T02:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bradblog.com\/?p=8642"},"modified":"2013-11-27T21:33:15","modified_gmt":"2013-11-28T05:33:15","slug":"brad-on-kpfk-ca-dem-party-progressive-caucus-chair-karen-bernal-on-a-primary-challenge-to-obama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/?p=8642","title":{"rendered":"Brad on KPFK: CA Dem Party Progressive Caucus Chair Karen Bernal on a Primary Challenge to Obama"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/BradBlog.com\/Images\/KPFK_BradBlog.gif\" hspace=\"6\" vspace=\"3\" border=\"0\" align=\"right\">On my Pacifica Radio show on <a href=\"http:\/\/kpfk.org\">KPFK<\/a> in Los Angeles today, I interviewed Karen Bernal, chair of the Progressive Caucus of the California Democratic Party (CDP) on their new resolution in support of a primary challenge to President Obama. [<i>Audio posted below.<\/i>]\n<p>My article on the matter (which includes the full text of the resolution), was <a href=\"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/?p=8641\">posted earlier today here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>I was struck during my conversation this afternoon with Bernal when she mentioned the CDP had actually considered &#8220;punishment&#8221; for the caucus for, apparently, even daring to suggest such a challenge to Obama, much less for overwhelmingly passing a resolution in favor it by some 75 of their members. While attacking the party&#8217;s nominee might be in violation of the party&#8217;s rules, the fact is, to my knowledge, the DNC has yet to nominate a candidate for the 2012 Presidential election.<\/p>\n<p>It seems the CDP might do well to remember what the &#8220;D&#8221; stands for in their name.<\/p>\n<p>Since today&#8217;s interview, the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sfgate.com\/cgi-bin\/blogs\/nov05election\/detail?entry_id=94646\"><i>San Francisco Chronicle&#8217;s<\/i> Joe Garofoli has posted a column<\/a> on the matter, including some comments from Bernal and, of more note here, some, uh, colorful comments about the Progressive Caucus resolution and the idea of a primary against the President, by California Democratic Party chair John Burton. It&#8217;s worth noting, as Garofoli did, that Burton supported the primary challenge against President Jimmy Carter by Sen. Ted Kennedy back in 1980. He&#8217;s singing a different tune now. Of course, Kennedy didn&#8217;t win that primary challenge, Carter won the re-nomination and he ended up losing in a landslide to Reagan &#8212; for whatever that comparison may be worth. (Not too much, in my humble opinion.)<\/p>\n<p>Also, progressive author and journalist David Swanson sent me a link to this new website, <a href=\"http:\/\/StopHoping.org\">StopHoping.org<\/a>, at which you can vote on whether Obama should be primaried and, if so, by whom.<\/p>\n<p>And, a quick note of correction, during the show I accidentally mischaracterized <a href=\"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/?p=8631\">Ernie Canning&#8217;s piece last Friday<\/a> calling for a primary challenge to Obama. His correction to my mistatement, <a href=\"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/?p=8641#comment-442173\">posted in comments here<\/a>, reads:<\/p>\n<div class=\"media\">I did <em>not<\/em> propose a progressive primary challenge to &#8220;broaden the debate&#8221; or &#8220;strengthen the President&#8217;s chances through that debate.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>I proposed a progressive primary challenge because, in a democratic society, the People are entitled to chose between candidates who represent their interests and those who do not.<\/p>\n<p>I am proposing that someone who truly represents the interests of the American people run and, hopefully, <i>defeat<\/i> an incumbent President who does not, period!<\/div>\n<p>My apologies for that error. Enjoy the show!&#8230;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><i><a href=\"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/audio\/KPFK_BradFriedman_KarenBernal_ObamaPrimaryChallenge_080311.mp3\">Download MP3<\/a> or listen online below [appx 28 mins]&#8230;<\/i><br \/>\n[audio:http:\/\/bradblog.com\/audio\/KPFK_BradFriedman_KarenBernal_ObamaPrimaryChallenge_080311.mp3]<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On my Pacifica Radio show on KPFK in Los Angeles today, I interviewed Karen Bernal, chair of the Progressive Caucus of the California Democratic Party (CDP) on their new resolution in support of a primary challenge to President Obama. [Audio posted below.] My article on the matter (which includes the full text of the resolution), [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[239,89,675,21,299,477],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-8642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-barack-obama","category-media-appearance","category-bradcast","category-california","category-democrats","category-kpfk"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8642"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8642\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8642"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=8642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}