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Former Sen. Gary Hart (D-CO) wrote an article at the Huffington Post that looks at the Iraq War vote and the judgment of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. However, what stuck out from the article was Hart's conclusion about the effects of centrism on the political process and the Democratic Party.
"Triangulation" and "centrism" may have led to eight years of a Democratic presidency in the 1990s.. But it also blurred the principles of the Democratic party. It led young politicians to believe that the safest course was in some vague middle ground. And, tragically, it led too many Democrats to believe they had to prove their national security credentials by voting for any military misadventure right wing hawks could think up.
This nation needs a president who will question the conventional wisdom, who will exercise skepticism concerning foreign entanglements, who will have the courage to resist pressure from the narrow-minded bellicose right, who will admit to error when major mistakes are made, and who can look farther over the horizon than most of us. Most of all, we need a president who can restore America's honor, respect, and moral authority in the world.
That president is not Senator Clinton. That president is Barack Obama.
3 comments:
I've been listening to Obama and to his surrogates like Sebelius. It sounds to me like he is even more likely to pursue the "middle ground" than Hillary.
What interests me is how many political heavyweights were nowhere when Hillary looked inevitable, but are now coming out of the woodwork for Obama. There must have been a lot of secret resentment of the Clintons. Actually, I wouldn't blame Gary Hart for resenting them.
Obama is about finding middle ground with the Republicans that live in your neighborhood and town, not the corrupt Republicans that are drenched with special interest money in DC.
One could actually make the case that Obama is turning on its head the usual script of appealing to the base in the primaries and then moving to the center for the general election. He often seems to be making the implicit case these days that he's safe enough to elect, but (shhh! don't tell anybody!) still bold enough to govern in a way that shakes things up in Washington once he takes office.
This could be a shrewd move, politically. But it is also taking a page from George W. Bush's 2000 campaign playbook, which certainly provides a cautionary tale. Today's voting should say alot about how well that pitch plays nationally.
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