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Lefty bloggers complaining that Obama is insufficiently progressive plays into this strategy just fine. The best way to get the media to regard someone as a moderate is to have their base complain about them a lot.
David Sirota details what I hope is the plan at the top:
Obama can use congressional pressure from the left as a negotiating chip - that is, he can go into legislative negotiations and say that he can and cannot do certain things because there will be a progressive congressional reaction that he must deal with. In this sense, he can portray himself as a "centrist," while also moving the center to the left.Obama keeps his approval numbers up by looking centrist to the right-leaning voters who are still contributing to his 75% approval rating. That rating helps him push on moderate GOP senators and get favorable media coverage. Pelosi will happily take the blame, being low-key enough that Republicans haven't ever made headway against Democratic Congresscritters by tying them to her. Hopefully we'll get to see some of this action at health care time, which Jon Cohn has lefty superhero Henry Waxman saying will be this year.
Lefty bloggers complaining that Obama is insufficiently progressive plays into this strategy just fine. The best way to get the media to regard someone as a moderate is to have their base complain about them a lot.
