Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Obama struggles with the base and the center

I asked 2301 students to speculate on how well Romney might pivot to the center once he - or now that he - has the nomination wrapped up, and how he can do so without losing his party's base. Obama has the same problem.

This story describes how he has to make the environmentalist portion of the party's base happy while also satisfying the center's desire for more fossil fuels. He is also trying to rally the base by pushing the Buffett Rule, but how do you do that without alienating those in the center who might be nervous about tax increases - even if it doesn't directly affect them.