Playing the Middle Against Both Sides - #politics

No one is giving Barack Obama much credit for continuing to try to be President of the United States at a time when the nation, politically and ideologically, is split in half.

Despite repeated setbacks and rebuffs, he is still trying to do what he was elected to do: Be President to the people on both sides of the big divide.

So he is not likely to veer sharply left and become President of the Progressives. And those on the right long ago decided to treat him like the Antichrist or, on a day when they are feeling magnanimous, merely as Public Enemy #1.

Personally, I wish the President now would side strongly, firmly and loudly with the Progressives, the liberals and moderates who still believe it is possible to take care of the least among us while also creating jobs, restoring education, encouraging science and fighting our way out of the Great George W. Bush Recession.

But then, President Obama would not be doing the job he was elected to do, which is to serve all of the people, even the ones who have tried long and hard to wreck his Administration at every turn and thus prolong the nation's economic woes for their own political gain.

In any case, a presidential move to the left would only raise the outrage and partisan resistance of the right, widening the great gap even more and further deepening it.

If Barack Obama is not re-elected, the next President -- Perry, Romney, Bachmann or ? -- likely will not try to represent anyone to the left of deep right field, except with sneering lip service.

In that case, the political gridlock will worsen and the right-left divide simply will expand as battered Democrats pull out their now-long list of grievances and seek revenge and full payback for all that the Republicans have done to them during the Obama Administration.

Electing a President in 2012 who is to the right of center will just give us four more years of stalemate and empty, futile political posturing.

Like it or not, America's economic recovery and psychic recovery will have to happen somewhere in the murky center.

It will never happen in the now sharply defined right or left.

-- Si Dunn

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Hurricane McCain

By Si Dunn

I dislike and deeply distrust neoconservative Republican politics. But I give good marks to John McCain for his level-headed decision on Sunday to abbreviate the Republican National Convention and send some delegates home as Hurricane Gustav approaches the Gulf Coast.

I hope the GOP will be able to resurrect at least some of their convention plans after the storm and have their fair shot at good media coverage during the runup to the Nov. 4 general election. I also hope they can mitigate the unintended financial damage to vendors and hotels in St. Paul and Minneapolis now that nature has chosen to trump the Republicans' political spectacle.

I still believe Barack Obama and Joe Biden represent the best hopes for change to the nation's broken economy, trashed political system and deeply damaged international standing.

But score one for McCain and the Republicans for putting nation ahead of party as Gustav roars toward a fragile coastline still trying to recover from hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

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