The Obama Coalition Is Center, Not Left

Unique winning coalition isn't going anywhere
By Gabriel Winant,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 6, 2008 11:01 AM CST
The Obama Coalition Is Center, Not Left
President Bush leaves the podium in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2008.   (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Barack Obama’s win is no fluke, writes Lanny Davis in the Wall Street Journal, and it's not the result a leftist realignment. The candidate painstakingly built a coalition of left, right, and center—what Davis, a former special counsel to President Clinton, calls the New Majority Center, and he built it to last. Obama isolates extremists on both sides, and his unique campaign captured the essence of what voters want.

Though some will argue that 2008 was just a toxic year for the GOP—"a result of a 'perfect storm' of the Iraq war, the economic crisis, and George Bush's unpopularity"—Davis begs to differ. “Something fundamental has changed.” If Obama is successful, we may well look back on him as a second FDR, usher of a new and lasting governing majority.
(More Election 2008 stories.)

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