It looks like President Obama has lost David Brooks. In short, Brooks believes that the moderate Obama of 2008 is gone. Instead, the 2012 election is shaping up to be a clash of ideological extremes–liberal versus conservative.
It says something about Brooks that he thinks Obama ran on a “moderate” platform in 2008. In 2008, Obama favored healthcare reform, abortion rights, gay rights, the expansion of the federal government, taxes on the wealthy, etcetera, etcetera. Brooks thought that platform was moderate?
To be sure, candidate Obama used moderate sounding rhetoric. He was affable, smart, and appealing. But make no mistake. His policy proposals were always well within the the progressive mainstream.
3 Comments
Wrong way Corrigan
Most incumbents retreat to their bases during re-election campaigns.
Our community organizer in chief is just reverting to his true base as he’s
lost everyone else.
Derek
Obamacare surprised a lot of people on the left and right because Obama proposed a health care plan that was more conservative in nature than Obamacare ended up being and was more conservative than the one offered by Hillary. This is only one of a number of examples we could draw from. So there is a definite disconnect between Obama the candidate and Obama the President.
Carolyn K
You summed it up ‘accurately’: Obama ‘the Candidate’ and ‘Obama ‘THE PRESIDENT’!
Yet ‘the ideology was ‘always’ and ‘will remain’, but only ‘extended’ by the advent ‘circumstances’ that have reared/revealed ‘their ‘true colors/calling’ which
‘in turn’ have ‘i defense’ created ‘that ‘transitioning’ ideology’.
We get ‘in return’/ in defense, ‘sometimes’ unfavorable ‘remnants’, especially after,
unsuccessfully attempting to ‘appease’ the unappeasable (?).