Media Matters: All over but the lying

[ck4829]

On Tuesday, Americans chose as their next president an African-American named Barack Obama who campaigned on a near-universal health-care plan, allowing the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy to expire, and a move away from the belligerent foreign policy of the past eight years. Republicans, and some journalists, had spent months (falsely) saying Obama is the single most liberal member of the U.S. Senate -- and maybe even a socialist. The American people responded by electing him in a landslide.

This, naturally, is very good news for the Republicans, according to many pundits. It proves once again that America remains a "center-right" nation.

Right about now, you're probably scratching your head, wondering how the election of the "most liberal" member of the Senate, a man who campaigned on a promise of near-universal health care, could possibly be described as evidence of a conservative country.

To be sure, it requires some creative thinking.

Democrats have won the popular vote in four of the past five presidential elections. When the new Congress is sworn in, they will hold more than 250 seats in the House and at least 57 in the Senate. Public polling shows -- and has shown for quite some time -- that Americans back progressive solutions to the nation's problems. The current progressive ascendancy won't last forever, of course. But it's about time for the Beltway pundit crowd to let go of their tired old assumptions about the relative strength of the parties and the ideological leanings of the country. Unless, of course, they enjoy making fools of themselves.

http://mediamatters.org/items/200811070012

[4dsc]

1. But Obama must govern from the center..

I am too wondering why these pundits believe Obama has to govern from a centralist position.... He won and he will govern his way.. They need to get over it..

[Imperialism Inc.]

2. Unfortunately this is nothing new. They did this in the '06 elections too.

Dems took over the Congress and they told us how that meant they would have to govern from the center.

Lets compare and contrast shall we? 2 Time magazine covers. One from 1994 when the Republicans won congress and the other from when the Dems won in 2006.

1994:


2006:

[Mari333]

3. Dems in 2006 , when trying to govern from the center

garnered low low approval ratings...you would think they would have learned...governing as republican-lite doesnt work.