QOTD: Barack Obama
by digby
From his own lips:
During an interview with Noticias Univision 23, the network's Miami affiliate newscast, Obama pushed back against the accusation made in some corners of south Florida's Cuban-American and Venezuelan communities that he wants to instill a socialist economic system in the U.S. The president said he believes few actually believe that.
"I don't know that there are a lot of Cubans or Venezuelans, Americans who believe that," Obama said. "The truth of the matter is that my policies are so mainstream that if I had set the same policies that I had back in the 1980s, I would be considered a moderate Republican."
He's right. And the fact is that he's never made any bones about it. It's just that a whole lot of people on both the right and the left side of the spectrum refuse to believe him. The fallacy, of course, is that being a "moderate Republican" is the definition of mainstream. At least since 1956 or so.
Via Bruce Bartlett's fascinating article about how the Democrats became moderate Republicans on economics.
.