How Obama is Setting the Stage for Hillary in 2016 [View all]

[Beacool]

Claims that the Democrats' leftward shift will hurt Hillary Clinton in 2016 miss the point—liberals disappointed with Obama's concessions will elect to a warrior. By David Frum

Peter Beinart says the Democratic party is shifting to the left. He's right. He says that this shift spells trouble for Hillary Clinton in 2016. He's wrong. Or anyway, it's well within Hillary Clinton's power to prove him wrong.

People who write about politics are adept with words and excited by political ideas -- that's true almost by definition. But those are unusual skills and interests, even among people who care a lot about politics. Most of us are less moved by ideas than by emotions; more by music than by words.

From this point of view, "left" and "right" are not logical categories. They are not about policy, not about programs. They are about about identity, about tribes, about loyalty.

And it is from this point of view that President Obama has been found wanting by many liberals and progressives. He's just not a tribal guy! Since he emerged on the national scene back in 2004, Barack Obama's big guiding idea has been the unreality of American political divisions: "There's not a liberal America and a conservative America; there's the United States of America." Campaigning against Hillary Clinton in 2008, Obama again and again denounced the "old politics" practiced by certain unnamed Democratic politicians, promising instead a new era of consensus and progress. "We can be a party that tries to beat the other side by practicing the same do-anything, say-anything, divisive politics that has stood in the way of progress; or we can be a party that puts an end to it." He warned against "nominating a candidate who will unite the other party against us" and urged instead that Democrats choose "one who can unite this country around a movement for change" – i.e., him.

That plan went pretty spectacularly wrong.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/09/15/how-obama-is-setting-the-stage-for-hillary-in-2016.html