As I previously noted, President Obama’s job approval has been plummeting in heavily Democratic states like California and New York, which has negative implications for Democrats in House, if not statewide, races. This is not a unique phenomenon: As I wrote in a long piece on the current status of the Republican Party, there is a pattern, not inevitable but common, of a party’s wingers growing discontented in the second term of their party’s presidency. As I described it:
Today we see signs of left-wing dissatisfaction with the Obama presidency, while right-wing dissatisfaction with the George W. Bush presidency, a major contributing factor to the tea party movement, still simmers. Left-wing dissatisfaction with Bill Clinton’s presidency found expression in the 3 percent of the vote cast for Ralph Nader in 2000, which arguably cost Al Gore (and the Democratic party) the presidency.
There are no signs of something similar happening in 2016. But that hasn’t stopped leftist Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., a nominal Independent who caucuses with Democrats, from making some presidential candidacy noises, and perhaps some Nader-like independent is contemplating a third-party candidacy.
