Ken Rudin, the political editor of NPR, said in Springfield Tuesday that enthused Republicans coupled with progressives unhappy with President Barack Obama make the next election precarious for the incumbent from Illinois.
“If the election were held today … if this were a referendum on President Obama’s re-election, I would suggest the president could very well lose,” Rudin told a midday crowd at the Public Affairs Center lobby at the University of Illinois Springfield.
But Rudin said he doesn’t expect Obama to face a serious primary challenge from within his own party, as when Ted Kennedy challenged President Jimmy Carter in 1980, and Patrick Buchanan challenged George H.W. Bush in 1992.
Rudin has a blog on NPR.org called Political Junkie. He was introduced Tuesday by Bill Wheelhouse, general manager of WUIS, the NPR station at the university.
Rudin's appearance was featured in an September 14, 2011, article in The State Journal-Register.
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