Reply #152: Where he's trying to go is wrong and this statement points out why:

[Gman]

"More disturbing is what happens to the mind by setting up these polarities. To take a “centrist” position, one calculates the equal distance between two “extremes.” It doesn’t matter if one “extreme” is closer to the truth. All that matters is achieving the equidistance. This means the presumably “extreme” view is prevented from having a fair hearing, which would require abandoning the imaginary center. And it invites the “extreme” to become more “extreme” in order to pull the candidate’s thinking in a more progressive direction. The process of substantive thinking is corroded by the priority of political positioning." For example, you don't stake out a position that the causes of global warming are still uncertain so that you don't piss off the extreme that says global warming is a fraud and so that you simultaneously don't piss off the people who consider man made global warming a fact and who have been made out to appear extreme via the MSM echo chamber even though the man made global warming people are correct. Not that Obama is actually doing this, but this is what is happening with his postions on Iraq, Iran, and others.

There are some absolutes that have not changed in this country and Hayden also covered them in his letter. There is nothing to bridge because these issues were around 50 years ago. The baby boomers fought to correct them, won some, lost some. But they are either back again, or never went away. Obama's charge, and whoever the Democratic nominee's charge will be to be bold, do the morally right thing regardless of the heat, and fix them permanently.