President Obama "is now Mr. Reasonable Centrist --- except there is no reasonable center to be had"

[Better Believe It]

Fatal Triangles
By Robert Kuttner
Co-founder and co-editor of The American Prospect
January 23, 2011

If you liked Bill Clinton as Triangulator, you will love the era of Triangulation II. The danger, of course, is that the man at the apex of the triangle fares better than his party.

He is now Mr. Reasonable Centrist -- except that in substance there is no reasonable center to be had.

A well funded and tightly organized right wing has been pulling American politics to the right for three decades now. And with a few instructive exceptions, Democrats who respond by calling for a new centrism are just acting as the right's enablers.

What exactly is the beneficial substance of this centrism? Just how far right do we have to go for Republicans to cut any kind of deal? Isn't the mirage of a Third Way a series of moving targets -- where every compromise begets a further compromise?

If you look back over the past several administrations, in most bipartisan compromises it was usually the Democrats who got rolled. The last major policy compromise where the right gave serious ground was the Social Security rescue of 1983.

Read the full article at:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-kuttner/fatal-triangles_b_812816.html

[xchrom]

1. recommend

[leftstreet]

2. How can you have a 'center' when there is no Left?

K&R

[Better Believe It]

4. 33 members of the House went way out on the limb by writing a letter urging President Obama ....

"reaffirm your support for guaranteed Social Security for America's seniors."

It made no mention of specific proposed cuts such as increasing the retirement age for early or full retirement benefits, means testing, changing the cost-of-living increase formula, etc.,

Isn't that the "left"?

[leftstreet]

5. Ugh

That's just creepy

LOL We'd need a Democratic Senator to rise up and call for seizing the assets of the rich to EVEN SWING the party back to a fucking center!!

[blindpig]

7. Nope.

That's a decoy.

[ej510]

12. Wouldn't be nice if we lowered the retirement age back to 55?

[emilyg]

3. k

[somone]

6. Obama's definition of center is where Reagan was

[ProSense]

8. Obama's definition of center

here here and here.

Obama's center!

[Better Believe It]

9. Almost making Richard Nixon look like a leftist on domestic policy!

[WinkyDink]

11. The EPA, FGS, was Nixon's!

[Starry Messenger]

10. k&r