DSD……
I’m beginning to see Barack Obama (for very different reasons) start to morph into or channel Tony Blair.
What’s different is that New Labour (Blair’s faction) started out deliberately to sideline and marginalise the left-wing and trade-union elements in the Labour Party, together with the strength of Constituency Labour Parties and the trade unions’ block vote (where each union could vote the strength of its entire membership at Labour Party Conferences on a one-for-one basis with individual constituency members.)
Barack Obama may not have been the most left-wing Democratic presidential candidate in 2008, but once John Edwards’ campaign had imploded, there was no one clearly to his left except Dennis Kucinich. Obama was not the candidate, for example, of the Coalition for a Democratic Majority or the Blue Dog Democrats.
More relevant to the current thread, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and Jack Straw (Home Sec.) established a clear policy that they would never let the Tories be able to campaign on Labour’s right about law and order.
The Dog….
DSD…..I have gone farther here on that same premise…..
Wondering out about the Liberal Tag for Obama which naturally comes from the GOPer’s for a Democratic President….
In fact I have pointed to the fact that modern day Democratic Presidents are more pragmatic than anything else…
Obama’s only real Liberal flirting was before Iowa in the Primaries in 2008…
Since then he has been keeping them at arms length….
That being said….
Some could call Healthcare a Liberal policy…
Obama might argue it was a Economic move…
Second thought….
Democratic President’s MUST always spend inordinate amounts of time showing they are tough…
I get peeved every time Immigration is mentioned since after 5 minutes of political media coverage ALWAYS results in more Border Guards sent to the Southern Border…
You know a did a post about that and the comparison to the East/West Berlin Wall….
Third Thought…
(I should have made this whole thing a a post)
(I DID….He, he, he)..….
President Obama is a WAR President…..
He really doesn’t need to prove HIS ‘bones’…
But he HAS allowed the GOPer’s and the media to portray him as weak…
That’s pure Bull Shit…..
But I think he’s been try to be TOO Presidential and has forgotten the Political part…
Which IS of course important since the GOPer’s have been relentlessly political from Nov 2008 in trying to get him fired…
Fourth……
There is a simple thing that we have ALL got adjusted to….
These ARE CRAZY Times…
The American people on the Whole are NOT gonna have much time for straight out Liberal points of view…
As I write this it IS the closing hours of 9/11/11….
Tens years after the country lost it’s virginity….
Photo Source….dailymail.co.uk
Share on Facebook
Blair was no doubt a political pick for a Labour party which had lost four straight elections. He was also elected leader in 1994 because of the sudden and tragic death of John Smith. Labour was heavily favored to win in 1992 but the Tories replaced Mrs. Thatcher with John Major and this gave them a boost. Then you add in the fact that most Brits didn’t see Neil Kinnock as PM material and this helped the Tories pull off a stunning fourth straight win in 1992.
He, he, he……Brandon…..There WAS more to the story,eh?
Yep there was. I follow UK politics like DSD. However by 1997 the Tory government after 18 years in power was so umpopular that maybe any Labour leader could have beaten it.
The American politician who modelled himself on, and was closest, to Tony Blair was in fact Bill Clinton. When someone asked Clinton if he had any tips to offer Blair upon his becoming Prime Minister in 1997, Clinton joked (I paraphrase) that maybe Tony Blair could offer him some tips on how to elect 418 members of your own party to Congress. Clinton, Blair and I think Gerhard Schroeder (SPD) held a Third Way conference (explicitly triangulating between left and right) in Europe, and I think shared several advisors.