Free Republic

WASHINGTON – Barack Obama's presidency has ushered in an era of centrism, with the country experiencing such a boost in independent voters that they now make up the largest proportion of the electorate in 70 years.

Have the republicans entered into a suicide pact? The party’s latest stratagem, a national “listening tour” would be laughable if it wasn’t so piteous. Republicans lost the House in 2006; followed by a disastrous campaign in 2008 that enabled Nazi collaborator, George Soros to install his Marxist marionette in the White House, and the party’s solution is to send out in the RINO’s? Reasonable minds must surmise that the party is not being run by Michael Steele, but rather by the Democrat party. Internal sabotage is the only tenable explanation.

Control of the president’s liberal-leaning agenda has been snatched by centrist Democrats in the Senate. They may just save his presidency. The most important debate in Washington today isn’t happening between Democrats and Republicans—it’s happening between centrist Democrats and liberal Democrats. Not just the budget, but control of congress in the 2010 elections could hang in the balance. Late last week, 16 Democratic senators declared independence by forming a new centrist caucus. Led by Indiana’s Evan Bayh, Arkansas’ Blanche Lincoln and Delaware’s Tom Carper, the group includes senators from every region and some of the party’s rising stars, including Virginia’s...

For a man prone to belittling politicians, Mayor Gavin Newsom of San Francisco is proving to be a deft politician. In his run for governor, he is summoning all the skills he can to shed the political baggage of his hometown, where taming a rowdy parade is the sort of thing that can set off a popular backlash. He is known outside San Francisco for one thing above all: his renegade order legalizing same-sex marriage in 2004. So Newsom has been trekking across the state for weeks, trying to show that the "gigantic order-of-magnitude change" he envisions for California entails...

Rep. Ray LaHood (R-Ill.) is in discussions with the Obama administration to take a Cabinet-level post — most likely secretary of the Department of Transportation, according to knowledgeable GOP sources. When reached on his cell phone, LaHood said only that Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), President-elect Obama’s incoming chief of staff, had contacted him last night. He would not discuss the details of the conversation. “It’s probably not a good idea to discuss this at this moment,” LaHood said. But one GOP source said that LaHood was engaged in talks with Emanuel about the Transportation secretary position, and the Obama transition...

I am far less convinced than many that Barack Obama will be a centrist in office. Despite his announced future Cabinet appointees, I find it amazing that people are so willing to believe he'll change his stripes that fast. Just what about Obama's very liberal voting record to date causes one to believe he'll be any different as president? I could see an aspiring presidential candidate establishing a centrist legislative record in the state and federal senates to make himself more electable as president, but not the other way around. There's another red flag that should give pause to those...

Barack Obama wants to give the economy a jolt. So far, though, the biggest jolt we've seen is the one the economy has given to Obama. That jolt, in the form of a plummeting stock market, upset Obama's desire for a leisurely transition. It made him virtually America's acting president. Obama is fond of saying-he said it again last week-that the country has only one president at a time, and until January 20 it's George W. Bush. True enough, but financial markets don't look at Washington that way. They focus on the future, and that means Obama. Financial markets demanded...

So far, “CHANGE” seems to stand for “Clintonites Have All New Government Employments.” Or something like that. While the Democratic left wing fumes (e.g., “So Far Obama Appointments Suck“), the ironic headline of the week comes from an avid McCain supporter, Senator Joe Lieberman.

I have always viewed conservatism as the centrist position between the extremes of left wing totalitarianism and right wing anarchy. Conservatives have always had the more difficult task of defining the balance between the interests of the individual and the interests of society. From this viewpoint, communism, theocracy, monarchy and their derivatives are left to extreme left. Anarchy is a virtual impossibility since any collective action by anarchists to promote anarchy is oxymoronic. Hayek’s idea of spontaneous order works against anarchy. The human desire for social interaction and the obvious benefits of cooperation compete with an irrepressible desire to remain...

If, at times, it is not easy to determine what a liberal is, it’s because during presidential election campaigns, politicians who have been voting like liberals, talking like liberals and boasting about their liberal credentials, suddenly insist that they’re really centrists as they go about trying to garner the votes of gullible Republicans and Independents. It’s rather like Michelle Obama trying to convince us that she’s just another stay-at-home mom who loves America and her kids, and in exactly that order. Most of us on the right can spot a liberal a mile away, just as easily as experienced bird...

The long, fascinating spectacle of the presidential primaries has all but obscured their potential impact on American politics: Campaign 2008 may break Washington's gridlock by reviving the long-dormant political center. The public's hunger for a change in Washington's ways has formed the backdrop of this year's presidential race from its outset. When the Wall Street Journal and NBC News surveyed voters in December, as the campaign began, almost half agreed that America needed "major reforms and a brand new and different approach" to handling problems. In the wake of Tuesday's primary elections in North Carolina and Indiana, it appears more...

The Atlanta Journal and The Atlanta Constitution April 25, 1997 Moderate senators taking on stalled budget as bipartisan force Centrist Coalition plans alternative to Clinton proposal. Author: Ken Foskett WASHINGTON BUREAU Washington - The stalemate between the White House and Congress over a balanced budget deal has prompted some moderate Republicans and Democrats in the Senate to begin crafting a bipartisan budget plan. The group of senators, known as the Centrist Coalition, is headed by Sens. John Chafee (R-R.I) and John Breaux (D-La.). Sen. Max Cleland (D- Ga.), replacing former Sen. Sam Nunn, is the newest Democratic member of the...

Obama a "centrist"? Though Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama earns zero ratings from conservative groups and 100 percent ratings from liberal groups for his Senate votes, Tuesday morning on MSNBC, Newsweek Senior White House correspondent Richard Wolffe declared: "He's basically a centrist politician."

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will address the annual conference of Britain's Conservative Party, the party said Sunday, citing the California governor's commitment to the environment - an issue the British opposition hopes to claim for its own. David Cameron, the Conservative leader, has been attempting to reposition his party - once led by Margaret Thatcher and Winston Churchill - in the center, to the dismay of some of the Conservative faithful. But the party, which last won a general election 15 years ago, has seen an increase in support in some polls in Britain, where the government is dominated by Prime...

SACRAMENTO, California (Reuters) - California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who once taunted Democrats as 'girlie men', called on Friday for an end to partisan bickering and a focus on innovative centrist policies. In a elaborately staged inaugural that included singers breaking into choruses of "Hallelujah" right after he took the oath of office, Schwarzenegger said California could serve as a model to the rest of the country and larger world. "At one time, the greatest public policy innovations came from liberals, such as during the New Deal," the Republican celebrity said. "Then the most innovative ideas came from conservatives, such as...

Styling himself a centrist who is not beholden to either political party, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will be sworn in Friday to a second term. "The American people are instinctively centrist, so should be our government," he planned to say, according to excerpts of his prepared inaugural speech. "No one ideology can solve prison reform or immigration reform or any of the other challenges facing us. It will take the best ideas of everyone." To burnish his bipartisan credentials, Schwarzenegger invited the state's top Democrats, including Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the San Francisco Democrat who on Thursday became the first woman speaker...

JACKSON, Mich. - Republican Rep. Joe Schwarz is backed by President Bush, Arizona Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record) and the National Rifle Association. In most years that would be more than enough to recapture the nomination in this rural Michigan district where the Republican Party blossomed. But this year may be different. Schwarz, a 68-year-old moderate Republican, was a fixture in local and state politics for 25 years before winning a seat in Congress in 2004. But in a primary that has topped $1 million in spending by outside groups and generated bad blood between the two candidates,...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is finding out just how hard it is to take a centrist view on the polarizing issue of sending National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border. The left wants him to refuse President Bush's request this week to do so. The right wants him to do whatever it takes to secure the border. But the governor continues to refuse embracing either side's all-or-nothing approach. He has said he doesn't like the idea of sending Guard troops to the border, but he's also said he would consider doing so, if it was a temporary solution. And therein lies...

Is Hillary a centrist? Let's look at her votes President Bill Clinton was elected in 1992, and I'm still trying to figure out exactly what a "New Democrat" is. Specifically, was the phrase anything more than a cynical Clintonian effort to make liberal Democrats appear more moderate? Looking ahead, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), who must be considered the early Democratic front-runner for the White House in 2008, seems to be adopting a similar strategy. Over the past year, much has been made in various media accounts of Clinton's leaving her liberalism behind in favor of the center.

Sen. Clinton polishes image as political centrist Posted on Tue, Jul. 26, 2005 At the annual conference of the Democratic Leadership Council, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton called for moderation and an ideological `cease-fire.' BY STEVEN THOMMA sthomma@krwashington.com Sen. Hillary Clinton, right, delivers her remarks in Capitol Rotunda during a ceremony honoring artist Constantino Brumidi, on his 200th birthday anniversary, Tuesday, July 26, 2005, in Washington. Brumidi, the political refugee from Italy who painted 'The Apotheosis of Washington' in the eye of the dome of the U.S. Capitol. Seated from back left to right, Sens. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, Bill Frist, R-Tenn.,...