Is President Obama a Blue Dog Democrat?

This excerpt is from a piece by the New York Times' Matt Bai:

The body of Mr. Obama's writing and experiences before he became a presidential candidate would suggest that he is instinctively pragmatic, typical of an emerging generation that sees all political dogma -- be it '60s liberalism or '80s conservatism -- as anachronistic.

Privately, Mr. Obama has described himself, at times, as essentially a Blue Dog Democrat, referring to the shrinking caucus of fiscally conservative members of the party.

Some Republicans have suggested that Nancy Pelosi purged the Blue Dogs, but what really happened is the Tea party defeated the Blue Dogs primarily in the South. The Republicans recovered the House seats they lost in the 2008 elections and then some.

The Republicans have been purging moderate Republicans by running conservative candidates in primaries backed by the Club for Growth. Even if the GOP incumbent prevailed in the primary, the person would often be defeated in the general election because of low campaign funds.

We now have a polarized House because the Republicans have been able to purge moderate Republicans and defeat moderate Blue Dog Democrats. 


source: http://www.theneweditor.com/index.php?/archives/12170-President-Obama-Im-a-Blue-Dog-Democrat.html

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Zogby: Independent and moderate voters are different

Zogby International
November 9th, 2009

Zogby has noticed that it is not uncommon for political analysts to treat moderate and independent voters as equivalent. However, in our recent Huffington Post article, we show that these two groups, while overlapping, are not the same. And in the case where main parties are strategizing to attract more voters, this distinction can be important.

The Democrats are the Big Tent Party

Moderates are an group that sits in the middle of ideological continuum between conservatives and liberals. On the other hand, independents are a group of people that doesn’t belong to the two main parties. Many of them are ideologically moderate, but important numbers of them aren’t, and the overall ideology of independents is tilted towards the right.

This fact is relevant for the discussion of whether Republican Party should become more or less conservative. On one hand, its members clearly want it to be more conservative, and this could attract some independent conservatives. On the other hand, if it moves too far, it will alienate independent moderates, a crucial swing-vote.

Of course, the Democrats are the party of the Big Tent who have a mix of liberals, moderates and Blue Dog conservatives. It is less ideological and more pragmatic than the GOP.

See the complete article at http://www.zogby.com/blog/loader.cfm?p=/2009/11/09/about-those-independent-voters/

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