Media Matters has a good story on the myth being spread by right-wing pundits that Obama ran as a conservative and the the country is still a center-right nation politically.
Postelection poll results contradict media claims that U.S. is a “center-right” country.
Summary: Several media figures have claimed that President-elect Barack Obama won the election because he ran as a conservative and that notwithstanding Obama’s victory, the United States is a conservative country. However, a poll conducted November 4-5 showed strong support for the progressive positions that Obama has articulated on the issues, rebutting the claim that the United States is a conservative country.
Several in the media have claimed that President-elect Barack Obama won the election because he ran as a conservative and that notwithstanding Obama’s victory, the United States is a conservative country. In claiming that Obama ran as a conservative, these media figures ignore the central components of his platform, including repeal of tax cuts for the wealthy, near-universal health-care coverage, and redeployment of troops from Iraq to Afghanistan. Democracy Corps, a Democratic polling group, released a poll on November 7 that showed strong support for the positions that Obama has articulated on these issues. The poll also included questions that provided a direct choice between the position taken by Obama on a given issue and that taken by Sen. John McCain (without referring to Obama or McCain) — with the more progressive choice echoing Obama’s position and the more conservative echoing McCain’s. For most questions that juxtaposed a clear progressive view with a clear conservative view, the progressive position was more popular. A list of positions Obama took on major issues during the campaign makes it clear that he did not run as a conservative, and the Democracy Corps poll results rebut the claim that Obama ran as a conservative and that the United States is a conservative country.
Read the complete article at MediaMatters.org.
While I agree it’s ludicrous to say Obama “ran as a conservative”, he DID co-opt a couple conservative positions, like opposition to any federal statute in favor of gay marriage. And he shielded himself from conservative criticism by voting for things like the new FISA bill and changing course on his promise to filibuster and oppose retroactive immunity for telecoms. And he talked very tough about forays into Pakistan. That’s not exactly the liberal position on those issue. I think we can agree that, at the very least, he ran as a centrist.
But I thought the conservatives just last week were calling President-Elect Obama a Liberal, and a Socialist. Now he’s a conservative?
Please, give me a break. You’ve been watching too much Fox News.
Chris,
Please, show me where I said that Obama is a conservative.
You completely and utterly misunderstood what I wrote.
It’s always best to refrain from putting words in people’s mouth.