Bill Clinton

One of the GOP's no-name, no-heft US Senators keeps up the intra-party, post-election sniping by blaming John McCain's loss on a failure to adhere to party principles - - something of an oxymoron as George W. Bush follows The New American Socialism and other Big Guvmint programs that are out-McCaining McCain.

If Sen. DeMint thinks the way for the GOP to win a national election is to run farther to the Right, great. That will push the Republican Party towards minority, fringe status - - strong in portions of the west and south, and among Evangelical Christians, but far from the mainstream.

Obama's was a victory based on inclusion and pragmatism. He ran away from ideology, basically as a centrist, especially on foreign policy, and followed a political patth to the White House similar to the moderate road taken by Bill Clinton.

Of course, the Obama campaign was organized far differently, so the internal dynamics and strategies were separate, perhaps unique.

But Obama proved that it is in the middle that election margins are identified and expanded, and this seems to be a lesson that DeMint is missing.

Fine with me.

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A valuable bequest from the Clinton administration is the revealing to a wide political audience of the American rightwing as hateful whack jobs.

Decent, hard-working people no doubt, but whack jobs nonetheless who pursued the Clintons relentlessly and shamelessly, casting every aspersion imaginable upon a cautious administration.

As a result of the Clintons' devastating rebuttal of the rightwing attacks [at the height of the impeachment, Bill Clinton's approval numbers rose to 69 percent], George W. Bush was forced to run as an anti-rightwing, centrist Republican, proclaiming non-divisive moderation in the 2000 election.

Progressive groups like Move On flowered as the attacks on Clinton became utterly untenable and the American people soured on the politics of the right.

Yet, there is every indication to believe that the rightwing is ready to launch another war on Obama led by many of the same characters.

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