Soccer Dad

Out in centerfield

There's something odd about Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley positioning himself as a centrist. It's odd because he supported the Maryland General Assembly's Wal Mart bill, he signed a "living wages" bill into law for the state of Maryland and he was one of the first public officials to jump on the Dean bandwagon in 2004. These are not signs of centrism.

I don't doubt that he will make an excellent candidate for President as he is photogenic, in person he comes across as gracious, he speaks well and can raise loads of money. He is not, however, a centrist.

But he writes along with Harold Ford in today's Washington Post about Our chance to capture the center.

But for Democrats, taking the center for granted next year would be a greater mistake than ever before. George W. Bush is handing us Democrats our Hoover moment. Independents, swing voters and even some Republicans who haven't voted our way in more than a decade are willing to hear us out. With an ambitious common-sense agenda, the progressive center has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to win back the White House, expand its margins in Congress and build a political and governing majority that could last a generation.

A majority comes hard for Democrats. In the past 150 years, only three Democrats, one of whom was Franklin Roosevelt, have won the White House with a majority of the popular vote.

So who do Ford and O'Malley cite as a Democrat who successfully captured the center?

Contrast the collapse of a conservative president with the success of the last centrist president. Bill Clinton ran on an agenda of sensible ideas that brought America a decade of peace and prosperity. He was the only Democrat to be elected and reelected president in the past seven decades, and he left office more popular than almost any other president in recent memory.

Bill Clinton, of course, wasn't ever elected with a majority of the popular vote, so why they hold him out as an example of what the Democrats ought to emulate is a mystery. I'd argue that Clinton's popularity had more to do with his personality and his opponents overplaying their hands than with his policies.

And if Clinton was such a success how'd he manage to leave with both houses of Congress in the oppositions hands? Maybe he was popular precisely because there was countervailing force to prevent him from straying to far to the left.

Maryland Conservatarian rightly points out that the recent behavior of the Democratic Presidential candidates suggests that they are running from, and, not towards, the center.

Coincidentally, I’m sure, Mr. Ford is now the head of the DLC and just last week it was reported that the Dems were No-Shows at DLC. That might have been a bit awkward since Mr. O’Malley has already thrown his hat in the ring to be no-show Ms. Clinton’s Veep with his early, enthusiastic endorsement of her candidacy. The same Ms. Clinton who went through some trouble to make last weekend’s Yearly Kos confab in Chicago…where voices criticizing such centrist thinking were in plentiful supply.

There's more via memeorandum.

governor o'malley, harold ford,