moderate news stories on Newser

The M-Word: A Moderate Eyes the GOP Nomination

Mark Russell — Thu, 19 May 2011 06:31:28 CDT

Is there room in today's GOP for a presidential nominee who is moderate on gay rights, immigration, and cap-and-trade climate regulation? Someone who even— gasp —supported the stimulus and worked with the Obama administration as ambassador to China? With Jon Huntsman kicking off his first campaign swing through New Hampshire...

2010's Lesson: Move to Center

Kevin Spak — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 11:21:32 CDT

Democrats didn’t just get stomped because of the economy, and they didn’t just have a communication problem. “The public heard us,” writes retiring Sen. Evan Bayh in the New York Times , “but disagreed with our approach.” Democrats overestimated their mandate. Exit polls in 2008 showed 22% as liberals, 32% as...

Scott Brown Invites Wrath From Right

Kevin Spak — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 12:49:50 CDT

It turns out being a Republican from Massachusetts is a tricky gig. Scott Brown has jumped across the aisle a few times now, Politico notes, most recently by helping to break a GOP filibuster on a short-term extension of jobless benefits. He’s also sided against most of his party to...

Health Care Reform Victory, Not Defeat, for Liberals

Kevin Spak — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 13:03:19 CST

Lately the left has been taking its lumps, courtesy of the conventional wisdom that health care reform passed over liberals’ objections. That’s just plain incorrect, writes Tom Schaller for FiveThirtyEight . A lingering narrative holds that liberals can’t govern because the left is so unmanageable. But progressives provided most of the...

Obama's Suddenly a Centrist

Kevin Spak — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 08:34:28 CST

President Obama must be worried about independents and moderates, because he’s made a dramatic shift to the center in recent days. In an economics speech Tuesday, Obama lavished praise on small businesses, promising tax cuts as incentives to grow. “This is how Republicans, moderates and centrists think, and talk,” writes...

Any Random Conservative Would Crush Snowe in 2010

Nick McMaster — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:54:46 CST

Olympia Snowe could be in trouble in 2012: a new poll found that a generic conservative challenger would trounce the Maine moderate in a primary. The hypothetical conservative got 59% of the vote, while Snowe received just 31%. While it can be argued that results for hypothetical candidate have little...

GOP Bails on Its Feminine Side

Nick McMaster — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:47:00 CST

Rebelling conservatives pushed Republican Dede Scozzafava out of the House race in New York’s 23rd District because she’s a moderate. But she’s also a woman, and her ouster points to a toxic side effect of the tea party revolution: the closing of the GOP to all but the most reactionary...

Lieberman's Name Ain't Benedict

Kevin Spak — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 13:54:26 CST

Joe Lieberman’s taking a lot of heat for saying he’ll join a GOP filibuster of the health care bill, but Meghan McCain thinks it’s the kind of courageous stand we need more of in politics. “It’s no secret I have an aversion to partisan politics and extremism—on both sides...

Obama Neglects a Powerful Presidential Tool: Fear

Nick McMaster — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 15:54:45 CDT

Barack Obama has been praised for bringing a more conciliatory tone to the presidency after the with-us-or-against-us swagger of George W. Bush. But Obama’s preference for gentle negotiation and compromise leaves him less able to use an effective presidential tool: fear, writes Ben Smith for Politico. Obama has failed to...