2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumThose "No Labels" guys have been all over TV lately!
On all the Sunday shows, it was Joe Manchin and Jon Huntsman spouting their rhetoric of "stop fighting, start solving problems" and they claim to be a group of "people left, right and everything in between as long as they come to the table with a problem solver's attitude." They SHOULD be called, "No Liberals" since they're made up of Conservadems, moderate Repubs. and conservative Repubs.
Huntsman is really working all angles to prepare for a presidential run in '16. He's always on TV pretending to be a sensible "problem solver" who "puts country first" (stolen directly from McCain's losing '08 campaign), with his daughters ALSO on TV constantly as "political analysts" who never fail to put in a good word for their father.
Between them and the "Fix The Debt" people always showing up on TV (especially Ed Rendell who never discloses that he's a member of the group, I think I'm going crazy!
TwilightGardener
(46,416 posts)They creep me out.
jenmito
(37,326 posts)1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)I think this move is GOOD for the country. It gives far more cover for repuiblicans to act sane, than Democrats to move to the right.
jenmito
(37,326 posts)1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)the any goper, so inclined, to create an alternate narrative to oppose in the coming teaparty primaries, if they act sanely. I.e., They can say they sided with the 58% of the electorate that see the gop as obstructionist nuts.
It's good for the country because it bleeds of gop votes AND further divides the gop.
jenmito
(37,326 posts)Makes sense.
Scuba
(53,475 posts)Proud Liberal Dem
(24,389 posts)Anybody whom has not noticed that President Obama and the Democrats in Congress have already compromised A LOT during the past and that Republicans have been acting like extremists (or pandering to them) has not been paying attention and should be listening to people like Ornstein and Mann calling out the extremists in the Republican Party. Has nobody not noticed that there is NO liberal "Tea Party" that commands any kind of overwhelming/toxic influence within the Democratic Party and that the two parties are NOT "the same, just on different sides of the fence"?
jenmito
(37,326 posts)THEMSELVES. In trying to look like they're "bipartisan problem-solvers" they end up looking clueless with their "both sides do it" attitude.
Proud Liberal Dem
(24,389 posts)by promoting the "both sides do it", the public continues to view what's going on as a bunch of "partisan gridlock" and perpetuates the idea that "both sides do it" rather than one party having become extreme to the point of causing severe dysfunction in government.
jenmito
(37,326 posts)that "both sides do it" bull gives Dems. in congress a bad rap.
hedda_foil
(16,371 posts)Right now,they seem to be building a corporate friendly"centrist alliance of reasonable Repubs and blue dog Dems. They're hoping to influence the media and Congress (imho) and,most importantly, dissatisfied voters who are sick and tired of the status quo,and want government to behave in a reasonable (corporate friendly)way. I do think they're positioning themselves to replace the repubs as the nation's second party if the current party goes the way of the Whigs, but there are a lot of directions they can go.
Zen Democrat
(5,901 posts)The fact of the matter is that Manchin is probably as much or more conservative as Huntsman. The "members" I saw were Huntsman, Mark McKinnon (both Republicans) and Manchin. By my count, three conservatives.
No wonder they don't want labels.
sadbear
(4,340 posts)Last edited Tue Jan 15, 2013, 11:27 PM - Edit history (1)
republican?
independent?
libertarian?
tea party?
no label?
Some marketing genius came up with that one. Let's see how long it lasts.
jenmito
(37,326 posts)Good one! I don't think it'll last. Weren't they around in this past election and they couldn't even get a candidate? Was that "No Labels" or "Third Way"? I know that the PUMA Lady Lynn Forrester de Rothschild was backing Huntsman after he got out of the Repub. primary under the guise of one of these types of groups.