Nov 8, 2009 12:12pm
Donaldson: Where Have All the Moderates Gone?
EmailOn our roundtable, Sam Donaldson asked me about what we aren’t seeing much of these days in Washington: Where have all the moderates gone? Donaldson asked George Will if the GOP has “driven out the moderates of the party,” and said “if the Republican Party follows the course of Palin, Beck and company, they’re doomed."
Here's the debate…
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Haven’t you heard? Haven’t you been listening? The GOP doesn’t need any stinking moderates.
Posted by: Thinking | November 8, 2009, 12:41 pm 12:41 pm
Are there no moderates or do they just appear farther to the right relative our far left President and his comrade, the Speaker of the house?
Posted by: Rob | November 8, 2009, 1:06 pm 1:06 pm
The right is too extreme. The problem with that is that the Republicans have always done a good job of keeping there clique together while Democrats are, by nature, free thinkers. If you have 100 Republicans and 50 of them are moderate, they can’t stomach the far right’s extremism.
Posted by: Cindy | November 8, 2009, 2:21 pm 2:21 pm
the Repbulican party is doomed, doomed I tell you!
Posted by: Doomed | November 8, 2009, 3:57 pm 3:57 pm
Cindy, Don’t you think Pelosi and Obama are a bit “extreme?”
Unbelievable deficit with this monster, economy and jobs on the back burner, stimulus money given to this administration’s favorites, Nancy and Henry Reid speaking for Americans -sad joke on us, George Soros, billionaire calling the WH shots, Emanuel and Axelrod personal agendas, etc.
Talk to us about “extremes.”
Posted by: pcafe | November 8, 2009, 4:10 pm 4:10 pm
>>
Not at all. The extreme right is so far gone they don’t remember what’s average or normal anymore.
Posted by: Cindy | November 8, 2009, 5:09 pm 5:09 pm
Sam thinks the Republican are Doomed! When was he ever right about anything? I sure don’t put much stock in anything he says.
What he think is a Moderate is someone that says “Yes Sir, Mr. President whatever you say”
True Moderates or True anything can still ask questions and make suggestions and have a perspective.
The Obama-nation group think bi partisanship is that the others are participating correctly only when they agree and shut up.
Posted by: GripperDon | November 8, 2009, 5:59 pm 5:59 pm
Where have all the GOOD reporters gone?
Posted by: wheresmymoney | November 9, 2009, 12:06 am 12:06 am
Moderates voted against fines of $250,000 and a 5 year prison term for being uninsured.
A moderate could never support such a thing, because it is a radical leftist position.
What person in their right mind thinks being uninsured should be criminalized?
Posted by: Joe White | November 9, 2009, 7:45 am 7:45 am
There was no place available to address this observation directly, so I’m choosing Sam’s justifiable lament over the general lack of moderation in certain circles under which to post a comment.
George Will’s rant to Donna Brazile during the roundtable discussion that “you people” have been bought out by the trial lawyers on the issue of tort reform was interesting. “You people” — Haven’t heard that old chestnut in a while.
When she pointed out that malpractice suits against doctors account for less than one percent of health care costs, his rebuttal seemed to be that trial lawyer support has nevertheless accounted for more than one percent of campaign contributions to Democrats.
Again, interesting, as is the level of financial support from health care insurance companies for Republicans. The costs associated with health care insurance account for much more than one percent of overall health care costs.
George might want to consider sticking to subjects about which he’s a little better at being misleading, such as the fantasy that Ronald Reagan brought down the Berlin wall. Happy Anniversary, by the way.
Posted by: Chuckles | November 9, 2009, 1:46 pm 1:46 pm
It is great that this ‘Old Warhorse’ for liberal causes is willing to share his thinking with the GOP.
Tell Sam that having people in the military who hate our American way of life is nothing compared to the people in congress and in the Whitehouse who have contempt for the things that made America the great nation of days past!
In coming elections, we need to put people in office who are determined to change the direction our nation took under Clinton and the Marxists who are now in control. We need strong people not wishy-washy mush-headed moderates.
Posted by: colnzgprnts | November 9, 2009, 7:38 pm 7:38 pm
If they follow Palin, Beck, and McCain, it’ll prove my theory true that the McCain on the campaign was just a Bush clone. When the GOP saw him pull the Palin move they realized there was too much stupidness on the scene. The GOP now probably knows whose stupid or not and has a lock out program!!! They still aint stopping this reform bill!!
Posted by: Orus | November 9, 2009, 8:15 pm 8:15 pm
That is a very good question. Their absence is a major obstacle in government, right now.
Posted by: Rick McDaniel | November 10, 2009, 10:20 am 10:20 am
coinsgprnts,
So you don’t like the direction Clinton took the country? You mean when he took the economic mess Bush-I handed him (sound familiar?) and turned it into a huge budget surplus, low unemployment, increased real income, high real estate values, high stock values, etc, etc? Ah, but he also helped too many of the “wrong” people for you didn’t he? Can’t have that.
Posted by: Bill | November 10, 2009, 9:51 pm 9:51 pm
George, getting back to the issue of ‘where the moderates have all gone?’
(This forum lost its thread)…but, moderates are alive and well in the electorate, we just have to keep switching from one party to another, voting for the ‘lesser’ of evils each time out. Moderates and independents will determine the next few elections, not based on how fearful we are of something, but based on which party is saying reasonable (not crazy) things about their plans. For example, the tripling of the national debt under Republican Rule when we had a surplus at the beinning of that administrationdoesn’t sit very well with many of us who are fiscal conservatives, but not republicans. We have in fact given up on believing that
Republicans ARE fiscally conservative. The time to prove your fiscal conservatism is when you are in power. Republicans proved the reverse. George Will saying that the Democrats are worse by a factor of 3 is disingenuous in the extreme, and proves only that republicans differ in no way from democrats in KIND, but only in degree.
Moreover, some of us are old enough to remember when Republicans were handed a surplus and blew it. How does that square with Will’s assessment?
In short, moderates like me don’t take a position based on party affiliation or what party hacks like Will say. We take our positions based on the facts, and that means we vote one way one time and another way another time, based on whose ideas seem most logical at the moment. That should give democrats great heartburn, because we sure don’t like what they are doing, but it should give no comfort to republicans, because they have already proven that they are fiscally irresponsible by blowing the surplus they were given, just to promulgate another tax cut for people like me who don’t really need it.
Posted by: Martha Jane Kitchens | November 13, 2009, 1:32 pm 1:32 pm