aTypical Joe: a gay New Yorker living in the rural South

Friday, July 15, 2005

Hillary’s mythical move to the center

Media Matters in May, on the Clintons’ liberal branding. It’s from the conservatives:

The idea that both Bill and Hillary Clinton are extreme liberals has been a conservative staple since the early 1990s. Newt Gingrich even referred to the Clintons as “counter-culture McGoverniks.” This notion persisted despite Bill Clinton’s leadership of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council and his relatively conservative positions on issues including welfare reform, the death penalty, missile defense, and the North American Free Trade Agreement—positions that Hillary Clinton shares. So where does the idea come from? Those most likely to describe Bill Clinton as extremely liberal are extreme conservatives; National Election Studies data show strong conservatives rating Clinton more liberal than any other Democratic presidential candidate, including Michael Dukakis, Walter Mondale, George McGovern and Hubert H. Humphrey. This feeling is probably more a translation of generalized antipathy into an ideological assessment than a realistic conclusion based on issues. Put simply, conservatives say they don’t like the Clintons because they believe they are too liberal, but in reality, they just don’t like the Clintons.

I revisited Media Matters after reading the latest evolution of Hillary piece, this one in the NYTimes:

As she gears up her re-election campaign for the United States Senate, Hillary Rodham Clinton is presenting a side of herself that might have given some of her supporters great pause just a few years ago. Nothing captures this new face of Hillary Clinton better than the Web site her campaign started this week: It portrays her robust stand on national defense and her desire to reduce the number of abortions, among other positions.

I visited the website and didn’t note the same emphasis the Times found. The article’s examination of her positions on abortion, immigration, health care and national security didn’t expose a giant shift. Rather, I think they show a politically savvy maturing that I find attractive in an elected official.