Out-Republicaning the Republicans- Obama Revives Clinton's Disastrous Triangulation Strategy

[CornerBar]

Out-Republicaning the Republicans
Obama Revives Clinton's Disastrous Triangulation Strategy
by Ted Rall

"It was Bill Clinton who recognized that the categories of conservative and liberal played to Republican advantage and were inadequate to address our problems," President Obama wrote in his book The Audacity of Hope. "Clinton's third way...tapped into the pragmatic, non-ideological attitude of Americans."

Clinton's "third way" was "triangulation," a term and strategy invented by his pollster Dick Morris. Triangulation is a candidate's attempt to position himself above and between the left and the right. A Democrat, Clinton insulated himself from Republican attacks by appropriating many of their ideas.

Obama is even more of a triangulator than Clinton.

Triangulation can work for candidates in the short term. Clinton got reelected by a landslide in 1996. (It failed, though, for Gore in 2000 and Kerry in 2004.) But triangulation hurts parties, which sell an ideological point of view. Clinton worked so hard to out-Republican the Republicans that he forgot he was a Democrat . He also forgot that Democratic voters expected to see liberal policies.

Clinton's greatest achievements ended up being Republican platform planks: free trade deals like NAFTA and the WTO, welfare reform, balancing the federal budget on the backs of the poor and working class.

...

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/04/01-6

[babylonsister]

1. Ted Rall; has anyone ever made this guy happy, about anything? nt

[Dreamer Tatum]

3. I think he was happy about 9/11, but that's about it nt

[inna]

20. "He was happy about 9/11"??? WTF are you babbling/lying about??

:thumbsdown:

:puke:

[CornerBar]

4. Personal happiness

or personal dismay is irrelevant to politics. That is not a political discussion when one merely addresses subjective and speculative character traits.

[babylonsister]

5. Regardless who is at the helm, rall rails. And I see you're

looking all around to find the most inflammatory anti-Obama posts. Good luck with that.

[bahrbearian]

12. Don't you have some cut & pasting to do?

[inna]

17. that is just one nasty, ugly comment.

:thumbsdown:

[laughingliberal]

8. "subjective and speculative character traits." Just SOP around here. nt

[msongs]

2. u can tell he is not a true believer of the infallible leader school lol nt

[laughingliberal]

7. True dat. nt

[divvy]

6. I thought "Triangulation" was the method used to assinate JFK.

[jaxx]

9. Bill Clinton never forgot he is a Democrat.

[Greyhound]

14. Right, 'cause throwing millions out of work, throwing mothers into the minimum wage hell

they live in now, allowing huge corporations to monopolize any and everything they wanted, are all well-known Democratic principles.
:eyes:

[Individualist]

16. He never forgot he's a DLC member.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

10. But..but..caving to the Republicans is the "smart", "practical", way of selling out.

Clinton was an amateur compared to Obama when it came to claiming Republican policies as his own.

[bahrbearian]

11. +1

[lib2DaBone]

13. Who did credit card reform? I forget...

..Remember when you could deduct inerest you paid on your credit cards and car loans?

Then the fat cats decided they needed more money.. so they tightened the screws on working people a little more...upped the interest and took away the deduction... real rocket scientists..

[branders seine]

15. all the above ad hominem notwithstanding,

Rall is right. Obama is just Clinton II. He's superficially better than a rapublican, but things are still moving in exactly the wrong direction.

[inna]

18. agreed with everything you said, except one thing

- i think he's WAY worse than Clinton.

[laughingliberal]

21. I find myself thinking that, also

Although, I have to say that might be due to how many hours I was working during the Clinton years. I just may not have been as tuned in to it, then.

[Motown_Johnny]

19. So If "Clinton insulated himself from Republican attacks" and

"Obama is even more of a triangulator than Clinton. "


Then it stands to reason that Obama is more insulated from Republican attacks than Clinton was.



How's that insulating triangulation thingy working out for ya?