There’s no longer room for moderates in the Democrat Party. But don’t take my word for it. Presidential hopeful Joe Lieberman is making my point for me.
I used to think Lieberman had the best chance of winning the 2004 Democrat nomination. After all, he had name recognition and a distant yet definite relationship with the “prosperous” policies of the Clinton era. Liberal enough to please the left, with just enough centrists’ views to appeal to the “moderates,” Lieberman was the poster boy for all well-reasoned and balanced politicians.
But time has changed my opinion. Over the past few months Lieberman has encountered a snag in his trip down the blissful road to the White House. The very word I thought would make him the Democrat’s front-runner in 2004 may be his undoing — the word moderate.
“Moderate” has become a catch phrase in today’s political spectrum. Simple association of the word with any given politician can dramatically increase his or her public appeal. Why? Because the term moderate conjures images of a reasonable, open-minded, non-extremist person