Left’s angst grows over Obama’s shift to the political center

[cal04]

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/155689-lefts-angst-grows-over-obamas-shift-to-center

Anxiety over President Obama’s shift to the political center is threatening to alienate the White House’s liberal base.

As Obama prepares Wednesday to outline his deficit reduction strategy, liberals worry he’ll embrace Medicare and Medicaid cuts as an olive branch to Republicans in advance of larger fights over the nation’s debt.

(snip)
Liberal lawmakers already were irked with Obama’s decision to support upper-income tax cuts he campaigned against and to launch military operations in the Middle East without congressional approval.

Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) this week said Obama should start acting like a Democrat, while two left-wing grassroots groups warned their members could withhold funds from the president’s reelection campaign.

[Bluebear]

1. 'THREATENING to alienate the White House’s liberal base'???

Hoo hah!

[indimuse]

2. center?

ah... :eyes:

[mod mom]

20. So the corporate right is now the "center"?

Only among the oligarchs and their lapdogs.

[Faryn Balyncd]

29. +1000

[Raksha]

26. That pissed me off too. Why can't they call it what it is -

the extreme RIGHT!

[mmonk]

3. I wish people would quit calling the right the center.

The general pblic still believes there is a big battle between and left and right and think there is a sensible center. That imaginary scenario ended a while ago.

[xchrom]

4. recommend

[w4rma]

5. "Centrists" are *not* the center. (nt)

[JohnyCanuck]

18. Just another example of Orwellians Newspeak. n/t

[provis99]

6. the center? Jesus H Christ...

Obama is shifting from the right wing to the extreme right wing. The center hasn't been relevant since 1994.

[SpiralHawk]

7. + 1,000

eom

[MissDeeds]

9. +1001 n/t

[somone]

11. Precisely

[stillwaiting]

13. Indubitably! nt

[LWolf]

24. Yep. nt

[CrossChris]

25. I think these articles have been planned for a loooooong time.

I think they're meant to coincide with this slashing of our public sector. Only a Democrat moving to the "center" could get away with these moves.

[w8liftinglady]

27. unfortunately,that's kinda what I was thinking. He started out at Center (which was OK)

[Canuckistanian]

31. +1000

Exactly what I was going to say.

[OhioChick]

34. +1000 n/t

[MadHound]

8. Shift to the "center"?

Umm, no. Obama started out in the center and has consistently moved to the right. Wherever this meme began that Obama was somehow a leftist, well, it is simply wrong.

[Enthusiast]

10. It isn't the center.

Why are the interests of a majority of Americans considered extreme left? This is a media falsehood.

This is your center.

[kentuck]

12. The "center" is the status quo.

The solutions are not with the status quo.

[MoonRiver]

14. But, doncha know, he doesn't care.

Heard on MoJo, so must be true. :sarcasm: sort of..

[Warren Stupidity]

15. The center of the right.

The only thing Obama et al are to the left of is the far right. This is a center-right administration, an administration very much aligned with the rightwing politics of the reagan era.

[bluedave]

16. Right

That's right not center-today's center is right.

[EstimatedProphet]

17. Oh, he's in the center now!

That would be why the budget agreement made 95% of the budget cuts from the LEFT. That's CENTRIST.

[Bucky]

19. In a related story... PPP survey finds if the election were held today, Dems would take the House

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2011/04/12/voters_sour_on_house_republicans.html

You can blame the Democrats' high profile "caving in to the republican agenda" for this political reversal of fortune.

[hobbit709]

21. If he moved to the center, he'd be going left.

[Poboy]

22. "Center"? The guy is a right wing tool, literally!

[KurtNYC]

23. "ANXIETY OVER..." -- you see? it's our fault !

This crap again. They want to sell the idea that it is NOT Obama's ACTIONS (and failures to act) that have created the rift. No, they define the problem as our ANXIETY with the situation.

[Greybnk48]

28. "Center" that was good for a laugh!!

The Center has disappeared, at least since the 90's. We're in La La land now.

[readmoreoften]

30. The CENTER? More bullshit RW framing.

[GeorgeGist]

32. He's moving RIGHT

[FlyByNight]

33. Depends on what's meant by the "political center"

Within the Beltway, a move to the center would be to his left.

The plutocrats and their Congressional mouthpieces (with a few notable exceptions) don't seem to notice and/or give a shit about what happens to the rest of us not within the Beltway.