There’s a huge distinction between what a politician says and how he or she governs. It is a distinction between substance and style. Its a horrible heuristic to judge a candidate solely by what he says on the campaign trail. The point of a campaign is to get elected. You get elected through rhetoric. Politicians, if they think it will help their electoral chances, will use rhetoric that does not reflect how they plan to govern.

I mean my gosh. Bush campaigned as a “compassionate” conservative. If his rhetoric was to be believe he was planning on being one of the most liberal Republican presidents in 50 years. And as you noted Reagan in no small part won election because he appealed to more than just hard core conservatives, even though he governed as a hard core conservative.

If that’s Obama’s plan, and it very well maybe, then sign me up. Sometimes I think Stoller forgets that most of the country isn’t even remotely close to as liberal as he is and that any politician who wants to be president needs to speak to more than people that view the world like Matt Stoller.