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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: slacker711 who wrote (126864)	12/10/2009 11:47:13 AM
From: JohnM	Respond to of 540901

By that definition, you are almost always going to get a centrist President. In general, I think that's true. Though Reagan as centrist in 1980 and Clinton as a centrist in 1992 are quite different creatures. And there are certainly exceptions. A political spectrum, at any given historical point, is a good bit different than other variables: enthusiasm of the base, overall turn out, campaign financing, attractive candidates, electoral college oddities, etc. The clearest illustration that comes to mind is the 2004 election. By that point it was clear that Bush, who ran as a centrist Rep in 2000, was governing from the right or even further over. Yet he won. Factors such as the above account for it. For the remainder, the political wisdom that one runs to the base during primary time and to the center in the generals still works.