By election day in November 2012, there isn't likely to be significant improvement in the economy or appreciably reduced unemployment. Even President Obama predicts that unemployment will still be at 9%. And his weak, Republicanesque "American Jobs Act," even if passed -- which is increasingly unlikely -- will do little to create new jobs or improve the economy.

It's time to face facts. President Obama will likely lose to the Republican candidate. And it might be a Tea Party Republican like Rick Perry, who will set America back decades in economic and social policies. America as we know it will be gone, and the advancements of Social Security, Medicare, workers' rights, science, environmental protection and civil rights will be reversed. Far-right Christian zealotry will rule the agenda.

We Democrats, liberals and progressives simply cannot afford to lose next year's election. But the hard truth is that Obama is likely to lose. And because the economy moves in cycles, it is almost certain that 2016 will see a growing and robust economy, with whoever is in the White House reaping the electoral benefits of a second term to 2020. We must find a way to keep the White House out of Tea Party hands.  Waiting until 2016 to find a new candidate will be too late.

We've seen Obama's poll numbers and know the state of the economy. Zero job growth in August. And Obama's supporters are deeply disappointed, dispirited and disillusioned. Obama doesn't know who he is, doesn't know what he stands for, doesn't know how to fight. And so he constantly caves to the right in a misguided effort of elusive bipartisanship, with a party that will do anything, even sacrificing the American economy, to get him out of office.

We need and want a president who knows how to fight. A president who knows what she stands for, has a vision to achieve her goals, and has the passion and gravitas to battle the ruthless GOP machine to push through her agenda. A president who would rather wage war with Republicans than succumb to them.

That president is Hillary Clinton.

There are tens of millions of voters ready to dump Obama and support her. I count myself among them. Obama can't win; Hillary can. And when we hearken back to the questions about who is ready to govern on "Day 1," and who we can count on when that phone rings at 3:00 a.m., we now know that it isn't Obama. And I think we all know that Hillary Clinton would be such a president.

There is an army out here in America waiting for leadership. For almost three years we have been begging Obama to be our leader. He has proven that he does not know how to be that president. Hillary Clinton was born a leader. Unlike Obama, Hillary can save us from eight years of a Tea Party president. Unlike Obama, she knows how to withstand the withering onslaught from the right, and continue to lead, to know what she stands for, and to hold firm in the face of fierce opposition. People will follow Hillary. They will donate, man phone banks, knock on doors, blog, and get out and go to the polls for her.

It is time to begin a call to Hillary Clinton. Run, Hillary, run. Your country needs you. You were so close in 2008, you can make it in 2012.

Democrats will jump to support her, like passengers on the Titanic grasping for something to hold onto in the cold, dark water we are now drowning in. If Hillary runs in the Democratic primaries, this time Obama never even makes it to the convention.

These are extraordinarily desperate times, and the same need that lifted an unknown black man to the presidency, can lift a primary challenger to the nomination. We can make Hillary Clinton the Democratic nominee for president of the United States, if only she will run. We can create an unstoppable tide of desperate enthusiasm the likes of which have never been seen in America. And we can make her the strong and capable president that this country so desperately needs right now.

Yes we can.

It's time to start the call.  Let her know what you want.  Blog about it.  Let America know that what we need. Let them all know that we want her to run, Hillary, run.