Yesterday, Bruce Bartlett made the case. Republicans of the Cantor/Boehner variety who pander to the FOX echo-chamber should take note.
"Thus Obama took office under roughly the same political and economic circumstances that Nixon did in 1968 except in a mirror opposite way. Instead of being forced to manage a slew of new liberal spending programs, as Nixon did, Obama had to cope with a revenue structure that had been decimated by Republicans.
Liberals hoped that Obama would overturn conservative policies and launch a new era of government activism. Although Republicans routinely accuse him of being a socialist, an honest examination of his presidency must conclude that he has in fact been moderately conservative to exactly the same degree that Nixon was moderately liberal."
Bartlett, with his focus on economics, argues that Obama is essentially a traditional moderate-conservative (read his bullet points).
As we are seeing with the debt crisis, the principal obstacle to his smooth governance and the implementation of policy is that radicals and anarchists have hijacked the language of conservative tradition. By any previously agreed upon metrics, President Obama is a centrist at the very least.
And, the President is still "the only adult in the room."
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