RE: RE: Hillary lurches leftward

Steve opines: "Blankley employs the jingoistic tool of characterizing opposition to the war in Iraq as being a "leftist" sentiment. He is not doing the GOP any favors with that, either. A growing number of people, who do not consider themselves leftists, bridle at the suggestion that their opposition to the war somehow makes them liberals. The attitude that anyone who doesn't support the Bush/neocon doctrine of democracy-by-force is some kind of hippie liberal is one of the biggest factors that caused libertarians and more than a few conservatives to vote with their butts in 2006."

I agree in that some people (including you, Steve) are not liberals because of their opposition to the war. However, the most vocal critics of the war are from "leftist" movements. Likewise, some people who support our effort in Iraq (including yours truly) are not kool-aid drinkers either.

"Hillary hasn't done anything lately that positions her on the far left. She isn't out chanting Marxian rhetoric like Edwards. She's not inciting class envy like Biden or Obama. She has thrown out an invitation to the anti-war base to see her in a slightly different light. She is laying the groundwork for icons of the ultra-left, like Michael Moore, Cindy Sheehan, and Medea Benjamin to soften their stance on her without violating what they perceive to be the trust of their supporters. On balance, she hasn't moved an inch from a solidly center-left position."

Last week at the DNC's Winter Meeting, Hillary said she wants to take oil company profits and put them in a government-run Strategic Fund... She is using the same rhetoric as Hugo Chavez did before he nationalized the oil industry in Venezuela. At first, pundits dismissed it as rhetoric, but on her website today, she is really pushing this idea.