Crook has long insisted that Obama's mistake has been to govern too far from the left, alienating the American center -- notwithstanding his acknowledgement that the Republicans are sunk in extreme right wing demagoguery, and that the Democrats' approach to the stimulus and health care reform are centrist by any sane measure. Today he comes up with an intriguing explanation for these seemingly incommensurate observations:
Again and again, Mr Obama has acted as though the middle of the electorate mattered less to his administration than the Democratic base. This is not to say he insisted on leftist policies. He usually gave way, when he had to, to conservative Democrats in Congress. He went along with a fiscal stimulus that included a lot of tax cuts. He went along with health reform that excluded the so-called public option. These and other compromises disappointed the left. But the message to the electoral centre was consistent: Mr Obama would have let the left have its way if he could.
What he should have done – and what he ought to do from now on – is simple. Instead of blessing leftist solutions, then retreating feebly to more centrist positions under pressure, he should have identified the centrist policies the country could accept and advocated those policies.
