A few days back Arianna wrote a Memo to Obama: Moving to the Middle is for Losers. I didn’t get to it until today. (I don’t read the HuffPo much. I’m still trying to figure out what the word “progressive” means – other than in poker, of course.) Anyway, reading the piece isn’t that important. It’s all in the title. LaHuff is all concerned about Obama’s lurch to the center. “Watering down that brand is the political equivalent of New Coke,” she writes. “Call it Obama Zero.”
Well, I actually kind of like Coke Zero (much better than Diet Coke), but let’s leave that aside for the moment. Also, let’s leave aside the lurch itself (how serious it is and how far). The real truth is Arianna is confusing business with politics. Something like the Huffington Post thrives on being as rigid and dogmatic as possible, making money off preaching to the choir. Being as “progressive” (that word again!) as possible for cash and clicks…
Obama, Axelrod, et al, know that won’t win the general. Arianna cites those twin loxes – Gore and Kerry – as an examples of why moving to the middle won’t work. (Nothing much would help them.) But she conveniently overlooks the man who really moved to the middle and stayed in office for eight years – Bill Clinton.
So the moral is… Never mix politics with business… with sex… with… ?
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