Lanny Davis pleads for the Democrats to reset to center
Lanny Davis would like the Democrats to retreat from their leftward march and return to the center. It is not completely clear whether he thinks this should happen because it would be good for the country, or whether he believes it should be done in order to win an election or two, but I strongly suspect it is the latter.
Davis focuses on the message, stupid:
It’s time to hit the reset button and return to the progressive centrist message that worked not just in 2006 and 2008 with Barack Obama’s campaign but really back to 1992, when Bill Clinton was first elected…Such a pivot and return to a progressive-center message is the only hope for Democrats to minimize the usual midterm losses this November and win back many independent voters. That message is where most voters are. Returning to the pragmatic “solutions business” ”” whether coming from the left, right or a third way ”” is what most Americans need and want, now more than ever.
Yeah, but they want it to really happen, not just to be promised and then reneged on.
I doubt the current Democratic Party is capable of listening to Davis,anyway. And even if they could and would, present-day Democrats have already dropped the mask and shown voters their true face, and anything else will (or at least should) be regarded as a strategic ploy.
That is why Davis must also make the truly extraordinary claim that the Democrats’ leftward tendencies are only an illusion:
…[T]oo often the voice of congressional Democrats, especially in the House, seems more left of center ”” seems more big-government, big-spending, big-deficits, anti-business and -growth.
I think this perception is wrong and unfair. But it is a reality. The loss of independent voter support is a result of that perception and why President Obama and Democrats are looking at what could be a debacle in the November election.
So, voters, which do you believe: Lanny Davis or your lying eyes?
Neo, you’re a New Englander, tell me, didn’t Senator Lieberman make a similar plea before being forced to run as an independent?
It’s waaaaaaaay to late to pivot to the center now and Lanny Davis should know that.
I believe my eyes. Lanny is just another in a long line of Leftist Ruling Class members. He is likely trying to curry some favor in the event the present Rulers are diminished by the new Rulers.
I just read the link. Lanny is truly a worm.
If this is what July brings can you imagine what September will be like?
Beware of geeks bearing gifts…
[typo purposeful]
Oh heaven’s sake, they do this every election cycle.
Enough of the electorate is stupid enough to believe this.
Then they turn right around and push the country to the left. This has been going on since the 1930;s. Some how magically the Democrats become “moderates” every once in a while.
This is how idiotic we are in this nation: we believe them. We do not pause to ponder just what “run to the center” means. It means that they have no principles of honor whatsoever and have figured out that a substantial portion of the voters have none either.
If Lanny Davis is being honest in this belief that Democrats really aren’t that big-gov, big-spend, anti-biz group the public thinks they are, the most he can possibly mean is that he knows some Democrats who aren’t that far left. Think about it. That’s the most he can mean, and that’s assuming he’s honest. That is the nearest possible approach the Dems can make to the center.
“It is not completely clear whether he thinks this should happen because it would be good for the country, or whether he believes it should be done in order to win an election or two, but I strongly suspect it is the latter.”
You are correct Neo, it’s the latter.
Hopefully Charles is right:
“It’s waaaaaaaay to late to pivot to the center now,,”
And I would get a tingle up my leg if Harry Reid were not reelected.
I notice that he uses the term “progressive center” so my guess is we’re meant to hear “center” but what he has in mind probably wouldn’t match what that word means to us.
My conjecture. Lanny Davis is a Clinonista first, last and always. He is laying the groundwork for Hilary to run in 2012 by his later claiming that she is the more traditional Democrat. The Clintons are just standing behind the curtain stage left and waiting for the applause that would allow her to step out and claim the mantle of leader of the party. I still haven’t figured out whether they don’t care that they will anger the black community by pushing the Dope aside or that they have concluded that blacks will go along in any event with nowhere else to go.