Exactamundo

In all the hand-wringing about Obama's supposed "move to the center," why oh why have more people not asked the fundamental question: which "center" are you talking about?

Welcome to the new center: post-partisan progressivism. "We're all Keynesians now," Richard Nixon once famously announced. And now the catastrophic failures of conservatism have set the stage for a new era of progressive reform. The election gave Obama a mandate and a majority for progressive reform: an end to the war in Iraq, health care for all, investment in new energy and education. He doesn't seem to have backed off on any of his major commitments yet. And the economic crisis is forcing an ever bolder response, driving the entire "center" to the left.

The first rule of critical discourse: define your terms. Thank you, Robert Borosage!