Obama is America’s most centrist president ever

Newt calls Obama a radical. Wrong Newt. Totally wrong. Obama is the most centrist president we have ever elected. On every issue, he has adopted the middle road. Consider:

The economic crisis: A conservative president would have cut taxes. A liberal president would have passed a much, much larger stimulus and created a New Deal-like Work Progress Administration to provide government jobs to get people back to work.

Health reform: A conservative president would have allowed private insurance companies to sell whatever they wanted to sell across state lines with no regulation, would have implemented tort reform to make it impossible for patients to sue doctors and hospitals, and handed out health insurance vouchers to the uninsured that would have come no where near covering the cost of individual insurance. A liberal president would have insisted upon a single payor system or Medicare for all.

Off shore drilling: A conservative president would have let oil companys drill wherever they wanted. A liberal president would have blocked all off shore drilling.

Iraq and Afghanistan: A conservative president would have kept large numbers of troops in Iraq indefinitely and sent large numbers of troops to Afghanistan also to stay there indefinitely. A liberal president would have pulled troops out of both countries as quickly as possible.

Don’t ask, don’t tell: A conservative president would have continued and toughened Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell to drive as many gays out of the military as possible. A liberal president would have immediately ended the policy.

Abortion: A conservative president would have expanded the prohibition on spending money to fund abortions accept in the case of incest, rape or when the woman’s life was in danger to ban funding of any and all abortions. A liberal president would have removed the ban on funding abortions completely allowing the woman and her doctor to decide.

Education: A conservative president would have kept and expanded No Child Left Behind. A liberal president would have abolished No Child Left Behind.

On each of these issues, Obama has adopted a reasoned, logical, middle-of-the-road centrist policy. Radical, Newt? I think not. You are the radical. Obama is a centrist, the most centrist president we have ever had.