Kerry's Campaign Theme Is Leaning Toward Center

[dusty64]

By ROBIN TONER

Published: June 25, 2004


WASHINGTON, June 24 — Senator John Kerry has yet to produce a popular catchphrase for his political philosophy, like Gov. Bill Clinton's 1992 promise of a "third way" or Gov. George W. Bush's pledge in 2000 of "compassionate conservatism."

But Mr. Kerry's Democratic message for the general election campaign is emerging, many Democrats say — on the campaign trail, in the party platform now being written and in the major speeches he has delivered in recent weeks.

His message, in part, is a return to the promise of Clintonian centrism: reducing the deficit, spurring economic growth, trying to ease "the squeeze on middle-class America," as Mr. Kerry puts it, from things like the cost of health insurance and college tuition.

Bruce Reed, president of the Democratic Leadership Council and a longtime Clinton aide, fretted openly during the heyday of Howard Dean last year that the party was moving to the left. Today, Mr. Reed describes Mr. Kerry approvingly as "a pragmatic centrist in the Clinton mode."

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/25/politics/campaign/25DEMS.final.html

[underpants]

1. Gee sounds like a winning strategy

:thumbsup:

[Kahuna]

7. I like it! I approve for the most part of Clinton's centrism. Voters..

will never go for extremists. Every successful presidential candidate sells himself as a "centrist."

[mzmolly]

2. Apparently Mr. Reed failed to examine HOWARD DEANS RECORD IN VERMONT!

Balanced Budgets
Health Care for 99% of children
Improvements in education state wide
Lowered Crime
Lowered child abuse rates by an overwhelming percentage

Do share what Kerry is suggesting today that is so *different* from what Dean had already accomplished?

Dean was a centrist Mr. Reed! Too bad you let your personal preferences make your lack of professionalism and republican ass kissing so very clear.

This guy is a TOTAL embarassment to the democratic party.

[Rose Siding]

10. Reed's interested in power, not facts

[TheFarseer]

3. I say good

I like a populist message - one in support for the middle class and the regular working people. I think most people in this country really are populists whether they know it or not.

[kikiek]

6. I agree. I lean left but I realize we can't always get what we want.

The current administration has demonstrated what happens when those in power won't find a middle road. They don't care that what they are doing isn't favored by more than 1/2 the population, and bad for them to boot. The division they have created might not be repairable.

[gatlingforme]

4. par for course, I think he should too.

[Gman]

5. If this were posted later in the day

It would already have several deleted posts and long sideways threads from people pounding each other over the DLC.

[shraby]

8. How about "Ease the Squeeze"

[GOPBasher]

9. This sounds good to me.

To win a presidential contest, a candidate must at least have the image of centrist, even if it's not true.

[He loved Big Brother]

11. Let's just use different catch phrases throughout the campaign

I understand the need to cater to the soundbyte-addicted Americans, but one or two or even ten can be used, we needn't settle on just one quite yet. Too many issues on the table that need to be seriously tackled at the moment.

[displacedvermoter]

12. Let's See What Cabinet Picks He Makes (Should He Get the Chance)

That will determine the "lean" of a Kerry administration. And, remember, should he win, he will still have to deal with at least one ( and perhaps two) GOP controlled branches of Congress. He'll be attacked nonstop from that hateful crew, and so he'll have to tread cautiously for some time.

Plus, we'll be broke for the next decade, that will limit a lot of growth in progressive social programs.

On Edit: Typo in Subject

[dusty64]

13. I like to think he will NOT

have to deal with rethug control in either the House or Senate. This will not stop the attacks from the VRWC or its media lackeys. Every smear, lie, and innuendo will be blasted across the headlines and airwaves as "accountability" will suddenly come back into style. Guilt before innocence will become the norm again and calls for Special Prosecutors cause Kerry farted improperly will ensue. "Investigations" into "quid pro quo" and "conflicts of interest" will make their way back into the mainstream after four LONG years of absence. It will be VERY telling to see how the standards of conduct will switch virtually overnight as questioning and criticism of the government and the President totally comes back into vogue without the "taint" of "unpatriotism" or "treason".

[displacedvermoter]

14. I really love to think not, for the reasons you give and more

but I have my doubts about the House, thanks largely to the Texas landgrab. I think a vindictive Tom DeLay is going ot have to be dealth with, even if he has a barely sustainable majority and has to rely on conservative Dems.

I hope you are correct, though.

[CWebster]

15. Kerry's theme has always been obvious: ABB

and not much else new.

[David__77]

16. Fine with me, so long as he's as left as Bush has been rightist.

Bush ran as a "centrist" too. I think if elected, Kerry should be as "centrist" as Bush has been.

[leesa]

17. Of course. All the rich folks in government certainly don't want things

to change. They are cashing in big-time with conservative methods. And Americans still LOVE to pretend they are on to something while their pockets are picked.

[apnu]

18. what i think is really disturbing is...

... that the "center" is considered the left in today's political landscape.

The neocon bastards picked up the "center" marker and took it way right. Normal conservatives are now right-moderates, right leaning moderates are lefties, left of center people are extreme left, lefties are extreme left pinko-commies, and the extreme left are so far out there that they go all around to fascist.

I don't share this opinion, but that's the consensus I get from the packs of GOP morons I work with everyday.

It bugs me that the real center is considered to be "out there" on the left somewhere. And it bugs me more, that people think this is OK.

Man, our culture is sick.

[The Commie]

21. it has been that way,, apnu, since...

Spiro Agnew made "liberal" a bad word to the sheeple. Democratic canidates don't want to call themselves liberals because they will get distroyed by the Repug propaganda machine.

[Cheswick2.0]

19. Bruce Reed is a moron

If Kerry is taking advice from him then I plan to be very busy geting rid of Kerry in 2008.

[Voltaire99]

20. Ah, the center! The glorious, principled center...

...where big business can count on its tax breaks, where reform is always told to wait, where bombing and invading other countries is always a "moral" course of action, and where those who struggle in Wal-Mart America are comforted with the friendly reminder arbeit macht frei.

Let's hear it for the center! It's the point on the political spectrum that delivered votes for Bush's agenda again and again. Oh, brave centrists! Oh, how...lite...you are!