{"id":11891,"date":"2019-07-08T08:59:59","date_gmt":"2019-07-08T15:59:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/?p=11891"},"modified":"2019-07-08T09:00:07","modified_gmt":"2019-07-08T16:00:07","slug":"democratic-candidates-arent-on-a-winning-track","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/democratic-candidates-arent-on-a-winning-track\/","title":{"rendered":"Democratic Candidates Aren\u2019t on a Winning Track"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ American Greatness<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Presidential candidates from both parties usually sound hard-core in the primaries to appeal to their progressive or conservative bases. But for the general election, the nominees move to the center to pick off swing voters and centrist independents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Voters put up with the scripted tactic as long as a candidate had not gone too extreme in the primaries and endorsed positions too far out of the mainstream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A good example of this successful ploy was Barack Obama\u2019s 2008 campaign. In the primary against Hillary Clinton, Obama ran to her left. But he was still careful not to get caught on the record going too far left. That way, he was still able to tack to the center against John McCain in the general election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As a general election candidate, Obama rejected the idea of gay marriage. He blasted illegal immigration. He railed against deficit spending. And he went so far as to label then-President George W. Bush as \u201cunpatriotic\u201d for taking out \u201ca credit card from the bank of China in the name of our children, driving up our national debt.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/amgreatness.com\/2019\/07\/03\/democratic-candidates-arent-on-a-winning-track\/\">Read the full article here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ American Greatness Presidential candidates from both parties usually sound hard-core in the primaries to appeal to their progressive or conservative bases. But for the general election, the nominees move to the center to pick off swing voters and centrist independents. Voters put up with the scripted tactic as long as a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-35N","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10714,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/10714-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":11891,"position":0},"title":"11\/06\/2017 From An Angry Reader:\u2026","author":"victorhanson","date":"November 6, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"11\/06\/2017 From An Angry Reader: Professor Davis, \u00a0 In your recent article \u201cThe Method to Trump\u2019s Madness\u201d, you claim Trump\u2019s insults are retaliation to those who have said things against him. Even if that is (partially) true, that does not justify Trump\u2019s immaturity and cruelty. \u00a0 In many instances, Trump\u2019s\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Angry Reader&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Angry Reader","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/angry-reader\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9410,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/donald-trump-postmodern-candidate\/","url_meta":{"origin":11891,"position":1},"title":"Donald Trump, Postmodern Candidate","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 8, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Trump defies all political orthodoxy and confounds any attempts at explanation or prediction. By Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review Online Early 20th-century modernism ignored classical rules of expression. But late 20th-century postmodernism blew up those rules altogether. Barack Obama was a modernist candidate. He turned out vast numbers of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Trump&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Trump","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/trump\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9605,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/why-trump-won\/","url_meta":{"origin":11891,"position":2},"title":"Why Trump Won","author":"victorhanson","date":"November 14, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson\/\/ Defining Ideas \u00a0 Throughout the course of the 2016 election, the conventional groupthink was that the renegade Donald Trump had irrevocably torn apart the Republican Party. His base populism supposedly sandbagged more experienced and electable Republican candidates, who were bewildered that a \u201cconservative\u201d would dare to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;The Clintons&quot;","block_context":{"text":"The Clintons","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-clintons\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9588,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-election-fables-of-2016\/","url_meta":{"origin":11891,"position":3},"title":"The Election Fables of 2016","author":"victorhanson","date":"November 8, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 by Victor Davis Hanson\/\/ National Review Clear choices on the issues in 2016 have been far more distinct than in 1960, 1968, or 1992. Most of what we read about the election of 2016 was untrue. Here are the most glaring of the election fables. Hillary would have been\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;The Clintons&quot;","block_context":{"text":"The Clintons","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-clintons\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9534,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/this-election-year-features-more-than-one-presidential-race\/","url_meta":{"origin":11891,"position":4},"title":"This Election Year Features More Than One Presidential Race","author":"Megan Ring","date":"October 20, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"By Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ Town Hall A presidential campaign is figuratively called a \"race.\" Two runners sprint toward the Election Day finish line for the prize of the presidency. But the 2016 presidential campaign has spawned lots of weird races. The first sprint is one between embarrassments and scandals.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Trump&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Trump","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/trump\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9181,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/hillary-vs-trump-godzilla-vs-king-kong\/","url_meta":{"origin":11891,"position":5},"title":"Hillary Vs. Trump: Godzilla Vs. King Kong?","author":"victorhanson","date":"March 22, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"By Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ Works and Days by PJ Media When and if it comes down to a vote for one of just two candidates in the remaining Republican primaries, a majority may still vote for Ted Cruz, which at this point I think is the far wiser course.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Trump&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Trump","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/trump\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"king_kong_godzilla_trump_hillary_article_banner_3-20-16-1.sized-770x415xc","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/king_kong_godzilla_trump_hillary_article_banner_3-20-16-1.sized-770x415xc-500x269.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11891"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11891"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11891\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11892,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11891\/revisions\/11892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}