Newsweek's Wolffe: Obama a 'Centrist'

Newsweek's Wolffe: Obama a 'Centrist'

By Mark Finkelstein (Bio | Archive)
Tue, 07/31/2007 - 07:06 ET

What would you call a candidate whose i nterest group ratings include:

100% from Planned Parenthood
100% from NARAL
0% from the Illinois Association for Right to Life
0% from Americans for Tax Reform
100% from the NAACP
8% from the American Conservative Union
100% from the NEA [teachers union]
100% from Children's Defense Fund [Hillary's old group]
100% from NOW
88% from the American Immigration Lawyers Association
0% from the Federation for American Immigration Reform
100% from the American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees
100% from Americans for Democratic Action [gold-standard of old lefty groups]
0% from NRA
'A' from Illinois Citizens for Handgun Control

Again, what would you call such a candidate? Well, if he's Barack Obama, and you're Richard Wolffe, you'd call him a "centrist."

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Wolffe is Newsweek’s Senior White House Correspondent. The Keith Olbermann fave turned up on "Morning Joe" today to discuss his Newsweek story on the Hillary-Obama dust-up. Wolffe argues that experience in presidential candidates is generally over-rated and that Hillary's in particular isnt all it's played up to be. He observes that whereas Hillary touts the number of countries she's visited, Laura Bush has also visited 68 countries and no on is mentioning her name as a potential Commander-in-Chief.

Wolffe certainly seems to have something for Obama. Not only did he downplay Hillary's experience, he also categorized the Illinois senator's politics this way:

He's basically a centrist politician. He's annoyed the teachers union. He went to Detroit and annoyed the car industry. But [his record of opposing] the war gives him a lot of cover to take very centrist positions.

It's true that Obama did express support for merit pay, anathema to the teachers unions. But he has otherwise toed the teachers' line, as reflected in his 100% NEA rating. And when it comes to annoying the car industry, he did so from the left. An article in Wolffe's own Newsweek noted that Obama:

castigat[ed] Motown's big wheels for driving our dependence on foreign oil. "For years, while foreign competitors were investing in more fuel-efficient technology for their vehicles, American automakers were spending their time investing in bigger, faster cars," Obama told an audience stunned into silence after greeting him with a standing ovation."Whenever an attempt was made to raise our fuel efficiency standards, the auto companies would lobby furiously against it, spending millions to prevent the very reform that could've saved their industry. Even as they've shed thousands of jobs and billions in profits over the last few years, they've continued to reward failure with lucrative bonuses for CEOs."

How does that make Obama a centrist?

But Wolffe's characterization fits the pattern. While the MSM regularly labels Republicans as "conservative," "hard-right," etc., there is virtually no Dem the MSM can't declare "centrist" or "moderate," from Al Gore, to John Kerry, and now to Obama.

Contact Mark at mark@gunhill.net

—Mark Finkelstein is a NewsBusters contributing editor and host of Right Angle. Contact him at mark@gunhill.net.

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}}}----> Centrist Obama

Tue, 07/31/2007 - 07:33 ET by Cool Arrow

Must be the swim trunks.

Libs don't really believe this centrist crap. They love to watch our reaction to the obvious lie.

Everything is relative, and

Tue, 07/31/2007 - 09:02 ET by Gat New York

Everything is relative, and one could regard Obama as a centrist among liberals, although that would be a stretch too. Obama would make Neville Chamerlain look like General Patton.

100% rating from the NEA

Tue, 07/31/2007 - 09:21 ET by motherbelt

100% rating from the NEA and Wolfe says "He's annoyed the teachers' union"????????

What alternate universe is this guy living in?

This is just B as in B, S as in S

The MSM is desperately

Tue, 07/31/2007 - 10:38 ET by Gat New York

The MSM is desperately trying to paint what is very left leanings as centrist, because they say so.

Reagan once said "I didn't

Tue, 07/31/2007 - 17:11 ET by dabal

Reagan once said "I didn't leave the Democrat party, it left me." This is just proof of socialist creep.

Lately it's hop-scotching.

Mark, adding all and divide

Tue, 07/31/2007 - 07:37 ET by Senior Chief

Mark, adding all and divide by 13, gives us 68.9% which probably a "center" to the lefties. Democracks and lefties invented their own definitions of to existing words that's totally fit their own agenda.

Remember when the word "articulate" becomes derogatory when it was used to describe Barack few months ago?

Sorry, but you're adding

Tue, 07/31/2007 - 07:42 ET by Mark Finkelstein

Sorry, but you're adding apples and oranges. A 0% from a conservative group is the mirror-image of a 100% from a liberal group. In other words, if he gets 100% from a liberal group and 0% from a conservative one, you're giving him a 50% rating and concluding he's a centrist. In fact, those two numbers would indicate he's 100% liberal. I've gone back and done the average based on the my logic and find that Obama has a 93% liberal average.

}}}----> Pat Paulson says

Tue, 07/31/2007 - 07:46 ET by Cool Arrow

Picky Picky Picky

I think Senior Chief was

Tue, 07/31/2007 - 09:25 ET by motherbelt

I think Senior Chief was being sarcastic??

That is the libs' position: if you annoy people at both ends, you must be in the middle.

The liberal MSM also claims the fact that they tick off the left sometimes as proof that they are neutral.

Sarcastic indeed...thank you

Tue, 07/31/2007 - 12:57 ET by Senior Chief

Sarcastic indeed...thank you MB for riding with me. And Mark, I'm with you 100% and like what I've posted, the leftoids will define terminologies to cater to their base and push their agendas through their robotic candidates. Based on his ratings above, Obama is more lefty to all the leftoid demcoracks besides Hillary "clevage" Rodham...

Obama

Tue, 07/31/2007 - 07:38 ET by Dee Bunk

What kind of centrist participates in the unprecedented filibuster of respected and qualified supreme court justices for ideological reasons? Centrists would be the Democrats who finally broke the filibuster. Obama filibustered and voted against both Roberts and Alito.

When he ran for the senate here they portrayed him the same way in the local media and it worked. Most people thought he was. Do people think Durbin is a Centrist? I think Obamas votes have been the same as his down the line.

Obviously, Wolffe measures

Tue, 07/31/2007 - 07:52 ET by dervish

Obviously, Wolffe measures Obama against the people he knows professionally and personally -- American life beyond the last Metro stop is only rumored. If you're the type to hang with K.O., I can see how you'd regard Obama as a centrist.

Or maybe he looked at a map and found where Illinois is, and that's where the term came from.

Well, to liberals, a

Tue, 07/31/2007 - 09:27 ET by motherbelt

Well, to liberals, a "moderate" is someone who is opposed to abortion-on-demand, but doesn't advocate blowing up abortion clinics.

Motherbelt, the person

Tue, 07/31/2007 - 12:11 ET by MikeB

Motherbelt, the person you just described, to a liberal is a right-wing extremist. Someone who is opposed to abortion-on-demand, and advocates blowing up abortion clinics is, in their lexicon, a far right wing extremist. You see, in the liberal version of reality, there is no left, center, and right, but rather center, right, and extreme right.

"A communist is someone who reads Marx. An anti-communist is someone who understands Marx." Ronald Reagan

Obama presents himself as a

Tue, 07/31/2007 - 08:40 ET by KC Mulville

Obama presents himself as a new politician, unchained to any ideology or special interest group, rising above any agenda. The media wants to elevate Obama above criticism. Obama presents himself as being "above it all." That's just hubris, of course. It's cheap to claim that you have risen above criticism, because that just means you don't want to face it.

I don't want my politicians "up in the air," above criticism. I want them on the ground, where we can get to them.

Without any widespread

Tue, 07/31/2007 - 08:40 ET by sarcasmo

Without any widespread adoption/use of accurate measuring methods, which are suppressed in the news media due to rampant antilibertarian bias, I don't see why people expect a logical (or honest) assessment of Obama's politics...
JMR

He's a centrist because he

Tue, 07/31/2007 - 09:05 ET by Jerry

He's a centrist because he has to stand in the middle of the road to get a cab in NYC.

When asked if he went to war with Iraq to derail the impeachment vote: “I don’t think any serious person would believe that any President would do such a thing." - President Clinton (Dec 1998).

Just curious, I didnt see

Tue, 07/31/2007 - 09:07 ET by DontTreadOnMe

Just curious, I didnt see the NRA rating up there and was wondering what they have him as. Im sure its probably not a good number.

Tread: good question. Just

Tue, 07/31/2007 - 09:18 ET by Mark Finkelstein

Tread: good question. Just as you imagined -

0% from NRA
'A' from Illinois Citizens for Handgun Control

I've updated the report to reflect these ratings. Thanks for raising.

Obama is a Marxist. It

Tue, 07/31/2007 - 09:12 ET by futbolisgreat1

Obama is a Marxist. It amazes me that the media hasn't bothered to tell Americans how he voted in the Illinois State Senate.

Obama is not a centrist, he is your typical, run of the mill demagogue.

During his run to become US Senate he used to give these pathetic speeches to the black community in Chicago. He would claim to know their plight and their struggles because he was also black. Of course he never mentioned that he grew up with a golden spoon in his mouth.

Let us also not forget that his father was a Marxist in Africa.

Sadly enough, Americans don't care about subtance, all they care about is apperance and on the surface, Obama seems like a good candidate, but the second that you scratch off a little bit of the surface, the true Marxist pig comes out.

if Barack Hussein Obama is a centrist.......

Tue, 07/31/2007 - 09:28 ET by Dave R

Given the recent effort of liberal apparachiks like Wolffe here to try and shift the center of gravity of the political spectrum leftward, that must mean I am now about ten miles to the right of Attila the Hun.

LOL-Mark, you needn't have troubled yourself, as that 100% rating from the NEA was enough to convince me.

Help Fred defeat everybody.

Obama

Tue, 07/31/2007 - 09:29 ET by iveseenitall

Hussein,Hillary, John vs. Rudy, Fred, Mitt. The choice is clear.

NEVERE,NEVER trust a liberal

Mark, I assume you have to

Tue, 07/31/2007 - 09:51 ET by bassndude

Mark, I assume you have to look at it from the MSM point of view. The farther to the left they move, the farther to the left the center moves. Of course, this will eventualy lead to the MSM refering to the extreme left as the center.

I see Obama as a racist, anti-life, pro-crime, anti-constitution left wing extremist. Of course thats just me. And Im sorta right of Patton...:-)

Save a SeAL, club a liberal!!

Email claim

Tue, 07/31/2007 - 10:05 ET by Chaitealover

I received an email this morning stating that Obama was raised by his mother's second husband, a radical Muslim from Indonesia named Lolo Soetero. The email stated that the Muslim school that Obama attended in Indonesia was a Wahabi one and that he only joined the Church of Christ in order to become active in American politics by downplaying his Muslim background. The email ended with the statement:

"The Muslims have said they plan on destroying the US from the inside out, what better way to start than at the
highest level?"

I've not read of Lolo Soetero before, but that may be due to my own lack of due diligence. Does anyone know if this email is accurate? Any comments?

This doesn't change my opinion of Obama as an empty suit, but so many of my 18-year-old grandson's friends find him admirable that it scares me to know that they can vote. [Grandson, btw, is a staunch conservative].

Wahabanism is a radical

Tue, 07/31/2007 - 10:29 ET by futbolisgreat1

Wahabanism is a radical form of Islam that has graduated many a terrorist.

Obama went to a Wahabbi school for some time, before he attended a Roman Catholic School. it is believed that both his father, who left him when he was two, and his stepfather, were radical Muslims.

It is difficult to tell how Obama's belief system was influenced by his father and stepfather. And if his attendance at a Wahabbi school has influenced his belief system. He was very young when he went to this school.

Here is something else, unrelated, but interesting to think about. Liberals in America went after President George W. Bush for the rumor that he did cocaine while he was in college. All the Liberals in America claimed Bush was unfit to be President because of this rumored incident.

Here we have Barack Obama, who actually admits to having done cocaine, marijuana, being an alcoholic as a teenager and early twenties. Yet I have not heard ONE Liberal say that he is unfit to be our President because of this.

Barack Obama is an empty suit, he is a great orator, just like Clinton was and shallow, silly Liberals and indepedents believe that a great orator equals a great President. I guess they would have loved Hitler, Stalin, Castro, Mao Tsung and the many other dictators, monsters and despots that were great orators, right?

He's a centerist because

Tue, 07/31/2007 - 11:10 ET by mytwocents

He's a centerist because he is from Illinois and everyone knows that Illinois is kinda in the center of the United States.

Vote early, vote often.

Tue, 07/31/2007 - 11:23 ET by acaiguana

--Old Illinois Political Slogan.

Reported to have been coined by Mayor Richard Daley, D-Ill Mayor of Chicago.

ACA

...

Quoted from: 'Acaiguana Notes from the Bomb Shelter' (soon to be a movie at theaters near you)

Yes - he is in the center...

Tue, 07/31/2007 - 11:29 ET by wizardjr

Osama bin Bama stands squarely in the middle of the remains of the Communist Party of America.

"Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there." Will Rogers

In order to be able to

Tue, 07/31/2007 - 12:06 ET by MikeB

In order to be able to clearly communicate with a "journalist" or any liberal, first you must know the code. In this instance, "centrist" does not mean someone who hold a political position neither right nor left, it means someone who could be butt buddies with Karl Marx. No one believes that they are an extremist, but rather, they believe that their position is only common sense. Wolff is obviously one of those who think Karl Marx had it right, excuse me, correct. Therefore, in his mind, he believes his and Obama's political positions are in the center. He is clueless as to what left, center, and right actually mean in the political spectrum.

"A communist is someone who reads Marx. An anti-communist is someone who understands Marx." Ronald Reagan