Reply #46: Your entire argument boils down to

[zipplewrath]

nothing more than semantics. He's on Fox News, trying to defend himself against extremism, and as a defense he present that he rejected progressive ideas. He said that because he wasn't proud that he had rejected progressive ideas? He said that because he didn't want them to know that he had? Or did he say it because he wanted them to perceive him favorably?

All the examples I've listed, and there are more, are cases where he attempted to seperate himself from progressives, so as to make himself appear more favorable to the right. You don't like calling that a punching bag, fine, but he is using progressives, the people in his own party to separate himself FROM his party and move towards the right. He is running away, and proclaiming his actions publicly, from the people in his own party.