Should Obama Not Run in 2012? Make Way for Clinton?

Incumbent Democratic President Barack Obama should not run for President in 2012 to make way for Hillary Clinton, wrote Steve Chapman, an editorial writer at the Chicago Tribune, in a column.

Clinton, of course, lost a somewhat acrimonious Democratic presidential primary against Obama in 2008 and currently serves as Obama's Secretary of State.

Chapman listed the following reasons for Obama stepping aside and making away for Clinton come 2012.

He Can't Win

His approval rating is the lowest level ever, the unemployment rate remains high, and the Democratic Party just lost two bellwether House elections.

Does He Want to Win?

Second terms are usually worse than first terms, said Chapman, citing Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, and a book called Second-Term Blues.

In Obama's case, he could also be facing Republican control of the Senate and the House of Representatives.

If he bows out, he could be on a Hawaiian beach, wrestling the cap off a Corona, wrote Chapman.

Hillary Can Win

Her husband presided over a boom, she's been busy deposing dictators instead of destroying jobs, and she's never been accused of being a pushover. Not only that, Clinton is a savvy political veteran who already knows how to run for president, wrote Chapman.

Not the First Call for 'One and Done'

Chapman's column isn't the first prominent call for Obama to quit the 2012 elections.

Back in Nov. 2010 in the aftermath of the Democrats' brutal mid-term election losses, an opinion piece posted on The Washing Post urged Obama to seize the high ground and the imagination of the nation by putting national interests ahead of personal or political ones.

If the president goes down the reelection road, we are guaranteed two years of political gridlock at a time when we can ill afford it, warned the authors of the opinions piece.

20th Century Elected Presidents Who Voluntarily Declined to Run Again

Teddy Roosevelt (initially declined in 1908, but ran on third party in 1912)

Calvin Coolidge

Harry S. Truman

Lyndon Johnson