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DLC’s From: ‘Our challenge is to win national elections’ |
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By Mike Soraghan
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Posted: 07/26/07 08:10 PM [ET] |
As presidential candidates cater to the left and progressives drive much of the Democratic agenda in Congress, the centrist Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) is sounding a defensive tone.
None of the Democratic presidential candidates will attend the DLC’s national conversation this weekend in Nashville, and many members of the party are calling for a harder leftward tilt.
DLC founder Al From noted that former President Clinton will be joining the Nashville event and said the DLC’s goal isn’t to play a role in primaries, but to help elect Democrats in general elections.
“Somebody out there has to say there’s a country out there that isn’t the Iowa caucuses,” From said during a Wednesday briefing with reporters sponsored by The Christian Science Monitor. “Our challenge is to win national elections.”
From said that Democrats have a chance to “build an enduring majority.” To do that, he said, party leaders must resist the temptation to play to their base and satisfy only its usual constituency groups.
He also defended the record of Clinton against those who would say he was allied too closely with corporate interests and centrist politics.
“It’s revisionist history to take the best decade America has had and make it an abandonment of Democratic principles. It’s wrong,” From said.
He added that even as the presidential candidates make the traditional leftward tack for the primaries, “I haven’t heard one candidate who wants to end welfare reform.”
From had no criticism for House Democratic leaders, who have been criticized by the left and are under scrutiny amid historically low approval ratings for Congress.
“The public is giving low approval ratings to everyone in Washington,” said DLC President Bruce Reed. “Everyone recognizes that a president drives the agenda. The most surprising thing is how stubborn the Bush administration has
been.”
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