I was intrigued to read Jon Meacham's cover article in this week's Newsweek "It's Not Easy Bein' Blue"
when I came upon another gem from the strange world of the Democratic Leadership Council and its leader
Harold Ford.
First of all, Meacham's article presses the case that the United States is a center-right country. He makes a case for this and the fact that the right has won 7 out of the past 10 elections bolsters his case since that is the only nation-wide election that we ever have. Making even more sense, however, is Rick Pearlstein's thesis that the public at-large holds center-left views generally, but that the political system itself is essentially conservative and makes change difficult to achieve.
All of this is interesting stuff, and if we get an Obama presidency, coupled with a Pelosi-Reid Congress the political terrain will have surely moved leftward. And then came this quote from DLC head Harold Ford:
"I think he will govern a little right of center," says Harold Ford Jr., the former Tennessee congressman and chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council. "He is not an ideologue."
http://www.newsweek.com/...
So that means that me and millions of others, who have given money, volunteered our time, voted for, and contacted hundreds of folks through e-mail, text messages and sites like these all to ELECT Barack Obama
president have done so so that he can govern from "a little right of center?" Is Harold Ford serious?
Are we completely delusional to think that Barack Obama is a progressive Democrat?
Perhaps Ford is simply helping out Obama with centrist voters and that it's all a wink-wink nudge nudge.
But if he's not, what does Harold Ford know that we don't? I think it's Ford's wishful thinking. He wants so desperately to become a U.S. Senator that he will do or say anything to help his cause even four years before his next battle. Ford has been a good commentator on MSNBC but this quote is very troubling.