Win the Bush and Clinton way

Here's an interesting article. It praises Bill Clinton's appeal to the centre and believes that abandoning Clintonism is a mistake. And it is written by a former senior adviser to the President.

Here's an interesting article

Not that surprising? It is written by a former senior adviser to President... Bush.

The author is Michael Gerson, the man behind some of W's best speeches, a White House loyalist and insider. The key paragraphs are these:

The immigration debate is a reminder to the memory-impaired that President Bush ran and won in 2000 as "a different kind of Republican" - meaning the kind that isn't libertarian or nativist. Bush was orthodox on tax cuts and moral values.

But from the earliest days of the nomination contest, he set out policies - a federal role in improving education, humane immigration reform, Medicare prescription drug coverage - that borrowed more from Roman Catholic social thought than from Friedrich Hayek.

Bush's first major policy address of the campaign, which I helped prepare, talked of seeking the "common good," asserted "solidarity" with the poor and declared that "the American government is not the enemy of the American people." Ed Crane of the libertarian Cato Institute complained that the speech epitomized "Bill Clinton's impact on the American polity".

He argues that both Clinton and Bush put forward policies, which were a mix of traditional and original positions, and had at least some positions with a strong centre appeal.

He detects that this is missing so far in the race. I think he is right and that victory will go to the candidate who plugs the gap.

Comments

[Tony Francis]

Dan, what you are seeing is the candidates in "primary mode". As is said, only the radicals vote in the primaries. So all these candidates are taking extreme positions. Once the general election starts, they will move to the center. An old Democrat once lamented, "It's a shame we got rid of the smoke filled rooms. Those guys knew what candidates could get elected. Now, with these primaries, all we get are unelectable candidates." Maybe he overstated the case. But, probably not much.

[Joe]

Favorite Bush quote (ad hoc)

"Is U, or is U ain't my constitch'unts?!"