Uh Oh: Obama Calls Himself a New Democrat

Posted by Chris Bowers, Open Left at 4:36 AM on March 12, 2009.

Just in case there was any doubt about which wing of the Democratic Party President Obama sides with, he put that to rest yesterday.  While he has long resisted ideological labels, President Obama declared himself to be a New Democrat:

President Barack Obama firmly resists ideological labels, but at the end of a private meeting with a group of moderate Democrats on Tuesday afternoon, he offered a statement of solidarity.

"I am a New Democrat," he told the New Democrat Coalition, according to two sources at the White House session.

The group is comprised of centrist Democratic members of the House, who support free trade and a muscular foreign policy but are more moderate than the conservative Blue Dog Coalition.

It is worth noting that the Democratic Leadership Council and the New Democrat Coalition (their own phrasing is "Democrat," rather than "Democratic") are openly affiliated with each other. From the DLC's website:

The New Democrat Coalition was formed in 1997 by Congressmen Cal Dooley (D-CA), Jim Moran (D-VA), and Tim Roemer (D-IN) to establish an ideological home in the U.S. House of Representatives for the New Democratic movement started by the Democratic Leadership Council in the late 1980's and led nationally by President Bill Clinton in the 1990's

Recently, when faced with losing their tax-exempt status for being a partisan political organization, the DLC claimed that "its exclusive purpose is to develop and promote its "Third Way" agenda and that some causes it has lobbied for--e.g., welfare reform, fast-track approval of free-trade agreements--got more Republican than Democratic votes in Congress."

Personally, I have recently been quite critical of the New Democrats, but also indicated I don't consider membership in the group to be worthy of writing off activism on someone's behalf.  The New Democrats aren't as right-wing as Blue Dogs, with the exception of the 15 or so members that are both New Dems and Blue Dogs. They are, however, slightly to the right of Democrats who don't affiliate themselves with any ideological caucus, and also obviously to the right of the Progressives. Wikipedia offers, I believe, an accurate description of New Democrats:

The New Democrat Coalition was founded in 1997 by Representatives Cal Dooley (California), Jim Moran (Virginia) and Timothy J. Roemer (Indiana) as a congressional affiliate of the avowedly centrist Democratic Leadership Council, whose members, including former President Bill Clinton, call themselves "New Democrats." As of February 2005, the House New Democrats are chaired by Representative Ellen Tauscher (California), with Representatives Artur Davis (Alabama) and Ron Kind (Wisconsin) serving as co-chairs. Representative Adam Smith (Washington) serves as chair of the group's political action committee.

The Senate New Democrat Coalition was founded in the spring of 2000 by Senators Evan Bayh (Indiana), Bob Graham (Florida), Mary Landrieu (Louisiana), Joe Lieberman (Connecticut), and Blanche Lincoln (Arkansas).

Check out a list of Senate New Democrat here. At some point, it would be nice if we had a serious contender for the Democratic Presidential nomination who wasn't in this group. With the exception of Howard Dean, who was once in the DLC, I believe, that hasn't happened since, oh, 1984. Nice.

So, there you have it, from President Obama's own mouth. He considers himself a "New Democrat," not a left-wing progressive. That is his labeling, not mine.

Tagged as: obama, bill clinton, jim moran, new dems, new democrats, cal dooley