That “L” Word
Peter Wehner pens an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal that calls for John McCain to highlight Barack Obama's 'liberalness'. Wehner says the convenient political shorthand speaks volumes to people - and volumes about the person so labeled.
National Journal rated him as the most liberal person in the Senate in 2007, and for good reason. On economic policy, Mr. Obama favors higher income, Social Security and corporate taxes. He supports massive increases in domestic spending and greater government regulation of the economy. He favors a significantly larger role for the federal government in health care. He opposes the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Mr. Obama has criticized the Supreme Court's decision to uphold a partial birth abortion ban, and he wants to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act. He voted against John Roberts and Samuel Alito for the Supreme Court. In Illinois, Mr. Obama supported banning the manufacture, sale and possession of handguns. And he supports granting driver's licenses to illegal immigrants.
On national security matters, Mr. Obama voted to deny legal immunity to telecom companies that have cooperated with the government in warrantless wiretapping of suspected terrorists. He wants to grant habeas corpus rights to detainees held at Guantanamo Bay. He supports a full-scale withdrawal from Iraq. And he says, in his first year in office, he would meet with the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea without preconditions.
It's no wonder that Mr. Obama has been endorsed by Moveon.org – one of the most radical groups within the liberal universe.
Of course, that political shorthand that has been so successful in the past is fairly well outdated these days. Leftist is more accurately descriptive than liberal. There is actually very little in Obama's stances - few though they are - that reflect liberal views, in the classical sense. Instead, the left advocates statism, not individual freedom.
By martian, Wednesday, 2 April , 2008 @ 11:29 am
Liberal, however, is the term the general electorate understands. And it’s a label the McCain campaign should be able to hang on Obama very easily (right nest to the "naive" and "inexperienced" labels) if they are willing to do so. So far McCain is being waaaaaaaaaaaaay to nice about Obama. That could come back to haunt him.
By Ted Goldman, Wednesday, 2 April , 2008 @ 4:52 pm
Isn’t "Amnesty John" McCain really the liberal?
And what an angry, arrogant, uncompromising pinko-Republican that old man is!