Obama is creating the new Third Way.....very "exciting"

[snowdays]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/24/AR2009052401980_pf.html


Obama's Center-Left Two-Step

By E.J. Dionne Jr.
Monday, May 25, 2009

Bill Clinton tried to create a Third Way. President Obama is doing it. This is exciting, but also disconcerting.


...............

The disturbing aspect of Obama's effort to create his new political alignment is that building it requires him to send rather different messages to its component parts. Playing to several audiences at once can lead to awkward moments.

Last Thursday afternoon, for example, the White House invited in journalists, mostly opinion writers, to sell them on the substance of the president's big speech on Guantanamo and the treatment of detainees.

Unbeknown to the writers until afterward, they had been divided into two groups, one more centrist with a sprinkling of moderate conservatives, the other more liberal. (I was in the liberal group.) The president made an unscheduled appearance at each briefing. As is his way, he charmed both groups.


............

Obama's center-left two-step is also on display in the domestic sphere. He is pushing hard for programs progressives have sought for years -- and, in the case of health care, for decades. But on the economic crisis, he has tacked carefully to the center, pushing aside calls for nationalizing the banks and working closely with the financial establishment to revive the economy.

And there's subtlety within his subtlety: Obama wants a more regulated financial market, but he would not disrupt the basic arrangements of American capitalism. If Obama has his way, investment bankers will make a bit less money and pay more in taxes, but they'll continue to be rich.

The establishment Obama is trying to build would make the country better -- more equal, more just and more conscious of the government's constitutional obligations. The far right is being isolated, and Republicans are simply lost.

But establishments have a habit of becoming too confident in their ability to manipulate people and events, and too certain of their own moral righteousness. Obama's political and substantive gifts are undeniable. What he needs to realize are the limits of his own mastery.

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Name removed]

3. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[depakid]

2. I'm sure the Washington Post and the Beltway crowd finds that prospect "exciting."

Indeed, much better than they had hoped for.

[Radical Activist]

5. And I'm sure they'll push Obama to a third way politics

with articles like this one, whether its accurate or not.

[depakid]

9. As to the Post being accurate- LOL -as trying to meld Obama into Tony Blair

of that most obsevers would have little no doubt.

[snowdays]

13. I do not find it exciting at all.

[Radical Activist]

4. "He is pushing hard for programs progressives have sought for years"

Funny how quick the author and others are to overlook that small detail. If a progressive agenda is ever going to pass it will have to be sold in terms that sound appealing to moderates and some conservatives.

We've been going over this since the primary when Obama had a progressive platform that he described with inclusive language. Some people are slow learners.

[Cha]

10. They don't want to hear the good news about

President Obama..only what they can carp about because that's what they do.

Obama has his own "way" ..just ask his choice for SOS, Hillary Clinton.

[redqueen]

11. Funny... yeah, I guess.

I'd say it's more annoying as all hell... but... potayto, potahto.

[mitchum]

6. Third Way = diluted antidote...

and who in their right mind thinks a diluted antidoteto be a proper corrective?

[Starry Messenger]

14. Seriously.

It's probably going to be as "effective" as homeopathy ever is.

[mdmc]

7. our time will come any day - don't worry bout it no..

I hope Obama has success. I hope he gets re-elected. Anything else he does will be icing on top..

[keep_it_real]

8. It is only a matter of Time before Obama Nationalizes the Big Banks

He does not want to be the one to have to do it (not on his watch) but he will have no alternative.

Not only will he have to nationalize the big banks, he will have to print greenback money just like Lincoln did to save the nation. He will have to get rid of the federal reserve and start printing U.S. government money and not federal reserve notes. Watch and see there is no getting around it.

[Egnever]

12. Sounds like the press isnt happy

They have a president that is smarter than them.

[wyldwolf]

15. like my sig line says...