Obama SNUBS State of the Black Union:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/02/23/obama.sobu/index.htmlObama SNUBS Dr. King Memorial In Memphis:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cornel-west/on-obama-not-going-to-mem_b_95179.html?page=4Those three letters (DLC) may be poison to many on the left, but if you remove them from the equation, the policies and politicians of the DLC as still quite relevant. Perhaps more so than ever. Consider:
1. A great number of those on Obama's (supposed) VP shortlists are DLC. If Obama's administration (should he win) is successful, there's great chance the Democratic nominee and president in 2016 will be DLC.
2. Close to half of the the new Democratic congressmen elected in 2006 joined the DLC, giving them, perhaps, their biggest presence in the House in a decade.
3. The top three most likely US Senate seats Democrats are set to win this year will go to a DLC member, giving them their biggest presence in the senate in over a decade.
4. Obama hasn't moved to the center just lately. His book "The Audacity Of Hope" is full of third-way new Democrat policy utterings, from private companion social security accounts to welfare reform.
Obama is a smart politician. He knows what policies work but he knows not to tick off the left of the party who, it seems, can't see beyond those three letters - DLC.
It was Bill Clinton's singular contribution that he recognized that the categories of conservative and liberal played to Republican advantage and were inadequate to address our problems.
He understood the falseness of the choices being presented to Americans. He saw that government spending and regulation could serve as vital ingredients and not inhibitors to growth, and how markets and fiscal responsibility could help promote social justice. He recognized that societal and personal responsibility were needed to combat poverty. Clinton's third way went beyond splitting the difference. It tapped into the pragmatic, nonideological attitude of Americans.
By the end of his presidency, his policies enjoyed broad support. That he failed, despite a booming economy, to translate popular policies into a governing coalition said something about the demographic difficulties Democrats were facing and the structural advantages Republicans enjoyed in the Senate.
Barack Obama - "The Audacity of Hope"
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