Running Away From The L Word

Here we go again.

This Post article today is about as discouraging as it could be.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign has also started slapping the L-word on Obama, warning that his appeal among moderate voters will diminish as they become more aware of liberal positions he took in the past, such as calling for single-payer health care and an end to the U.S. embargo against Cuba...

...the criticism from the McCain and Clinton operations draws a quick rebuttal from Obama's campaign. His strategists recognize that Democratic voters and the superdelegates who may end up deciding the hotly contested nomination are concerned about the electability of a candidate tagged with the "liberal" label that has fatally wounded nominees such as John F. Kerry, Michael S. Dukakis and Walter F. Mondale...

..."He's really not an old-fashioned liberal at all," Sunstein said. "He's a market-oriented Democrat from the University of Chicago with strong religious convictions."

...Supporters also argue that the liberal tag will not stick to Obama partly because the public climate has shifted toward him amid widespread disillusionment with Republican policies, scrambling traditional notions of right and left. "There's growing dismay about the war in Iraq as it enters year six, and a sense that we've neglected some real basic necessities in this country," said Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D), one of Obama's key red-state backers. "He's not out of step with what I hear people being worried about..."

...[Obama] mocked the emerging GOP criticism in a speech last month in Austin. "Oh, he's liberal. He's liberal," he said. "Let me tell you something. There's nothing liberal about wanting to reduce money in politics. It's common sense. . . . There's nothing liberal about wanting to make sure that everybody has health care. We are spending more on health care in this country than any other advanced country. We got more uninsured. There's nothing liberal about saying that doesn't make sense, and we should do something smarter with our health-care system. Don't let them run that okey-doke on you..."

This kind of talk is very frustrating. It's defensive and evokes a fearful, loser mentality.

If it's true, as the article states, that--

In most major areas, Obama has taken positions that would seem to conform to the Republican stereotype of a liberal. Like Clinton, he favors expanding the government's role in delivering health care, and would pay for that by ending President Bush's tax cuts for the rich. He would go a step further than Clinton by lifting the limit on income taxed for Social Security, now $100,000, to set that program on firm footing.

He strongly supports abortion rights and spoke out against a Supreme Court ruling last year that upheld a ban on the procedure that some call "partial-birth" abortion. He favors allowing illegal immigrants to get driver's licenses (after some hesitation, Clinton came out against that). He is outspoken on civil rights, and he has opposed Bush's judicial picks, staying out of a bipartisan effort to approve some nominees. While he supports the death penalty for the most "heinous" crimes, as a Senate candidate in 2004 he expressed support for strict gun control, de-criminalizing marijuana and ending federal mandatory minimum prison sentences, issues he now rarely raises on the trail.

And that--

...liberal positions [Obama] took in the past, such as calling for single-payer health care and an end to the U.S. embargo against Cuba...

And on top of all that, that--

Supporters also argue that the liberal tag will not stick to Obama partly because the public climate has shifted toward him amid widespread disillusionment with Republican policies, scrambling traditional notions of right and left. "There's growing dismay about the war in Iraq as it enters year six, and a sense that we've neglected some real basic necessities in this country," said Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D), one of Obama's key red-state backers. "He's not out of step with what I hear people being worried about."

This would seem an opportune time, perhaps a better time has never existed in American history, to point out that the fact that (and while we're on the subject, what about the government's response, under conservative Republicans in the Executive branch and in Congress, to Katrina?) conservatism theology and conservative results warrants criticism, and maybe, just maybe, liberal and liberalism is worth turning to?