General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: My son, who preferred Obama over Romney had some pretty startling things to say............ [View all]Texas Lawyer
(350 posts)agreed with on more issues, we'd lose a 50 state landslide.
I did not support Obama in the primary in 2008 because he's a moderate (and -- to his credit -- he's pretty candid about it; anyone who's read his autobiographical writing will see that he not bleeding heart liberal Democrat much less a dreaded "Socialist" .
Jimmy Carter has been a great ex-President -- especially on foreign affairs -- but he was not more liberal than Obama on most issues. Clinton was a great president (especially when you compare him the the guy he replaced, the guys he beat and the guy who came after him) but he was no flaming liberal.
Johnson? Moderate. Kennedy? Moderate.
We haven't really elected a liberal president since FDR.
We could possibly nominate a liberal (that's who I'll support in the primary), but the more liberal the candidate we nominate in the primary, the less success we typically have in the general election.
Sometimes you nominate a Bill Clinton or an Obama instead of a Bernie Sanders or an Elizabeth Warren, which can be disappointing to a true liberal, but the consolation from nominating a moderate is that, if we nominated Sanders or Warren, we run a greater risk of electing a Bush/Cheney- or a Romney/Ryan-type ticket.