Democratic Leadership Council: Exit Stage Left?

The Democratic Leadership Council is having its annual convention in Nashville, Tennessee. The DLC was designed to provide a safe place for moderate and conservative Democrats to express their views and to be a force to help the Democratic Party.

A few years ago the DLC was a pretty big thing. President Bill Clinton said that the organization had everything to do with his election and believed that it should be a force to be reckoned with for years to come. Clinton, in fact, was one of the organization's founders.

The candidates for President in the Democratic party today have declared a war on conservatives and moderates today. Former Senator John Edwards likes to talk about "two Americas" in his message of class warfare. Sen. Barack Obama passionately promotes socialized medicine and has declared a war on capitalism with his threats of excessive taxation. And Hillary Clinton has been singing the praises of socialism and now declares herself a "progressive."

At the big DLC recent events, Democratic presidential candidates have always showed up. This year, not a single Democratic candidate for President is showing up. They did get Bill Clinton and Hillary may be using her man to hedge her bets, but none of the actual candidates are showing up. Not even second and third tier candidates are there. To me, this is good news for Republicans. The recent story of US politics is that Republicans run to the right in the primaries and behave more moderate in the general election. The opposite is the case for Democrats, who run left and try to shift moderate. But with the treatment they are giving the DLC, there will not likely be a moderate base waiting for them.