Obama to Skip Liberal Conference, Continues to Court the Center
A centrist Obama distances himself from the conference this year.
May 29, 2009 -- Barack Obama was there in 2006. That's when some supporters were urging him to consider a presidential run.
Barack Obama was there in 2007. That's when he was in the thick of the fight for the Democratic presidential nomination and staking out the left wing of the Democratic party as his base turf in his battle against Hillary Clinton.
But when the annual gathering sponsored by the liberal activist group Campaign for America's Future convenes in Washington, D.C.. next week, President Obama will not make the trip up Connecticut Avenue to address the group.
The annual conference is adjusting to new political realities in more ways than simply the lineup of speakers. In years past, the gathering has been called "Take Back America." Now, with emboldened Democratic majorities in the House and Senate and a Democrat sitting in the Oval Office, the conference is being called "America's Future Now."
The Obama administration is not shunning the conference by any means. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, Organizing for America chief Mitch Stewart, and Vice President Biden's top economic adviser Jared Bernstein are all on tap to participate.
But Obama and his White House team have appeared pretty committed in their efforts to hang on to that all important and vast center in American politics. The president has been reluctant to take up the culture wars of administrations past, and on signature issues such as health care and energy, Obama has strived for broad consensus over a policy dictate from the White House.
It's not terribly difficult to do the math. Liberals are already pretty ardent Obama supporters, and they are not a terribly large ideological slice in the overall electorate. The exit polls from the 2008 election showed only 22 percent of voters consider themselves liberal. Far more labeled themselves moderate (44 percent) or conservative (34 percent).
As he works to keep the moderates and independents he persuaded to vote for him in November in the fold, Obama is less eager to wrap himself in the left wing base of his party.
