Bredesen tries to leave the sinking ship
Tennessee’s Democratic Governor Phil Bredesen tries to distance himself from the large and dominant left wing of the Democratic Party. This is especially interesting since Bredesen is not running for re-election; term limits in his state prohibit that.
Note his delicate balancing act when it comes to Obama:
[Bredersen] was not directly critical of the president’s leadership, but when asked where he put Obama on the ideological spectrum, he said, “I’m not sure. I know in times that I talked to him during the campaign, he came across to me as fairly centrist on things. But I have to say that on things that have happened so far, he would be certainly well to the left of any independent in the country.
That is to say: Obama misrepresented himself, and actions speak louder than words.
Bredesen also has an interesting way to look at the Democratic victories in 2006 and 2008:
Those victories, he said, were not evidence of a long-term engagement between voters and the party but only a tryout for the party to show off new ideas.
“I don’t think we’ve done particularly well in the tryout, and I think it’s going to hurt us,” he said. “It’s certainly hurting Democrats in Tennessee. And I wish we could get back more toward the middle of the road.”
I think Bredesen is exactly right. Voters were dissatisfied with Republican control and wanted to throw the bums out and see what might happen. Well, now we know, and the new bums make the old bums look a good deal better in retrospect.
Not having heard of Bredersen before, I looked up his Wiki entry and found out a few things. He is a bona fide moderate Democrat, who won the governorship in the first place by appealing to Republicans in the state as well as members of his own party, and won his second term by the largest margin in Tennessee history, having practiced fiscal conservatism and balanced the budget.
Bredesen is also a rarity for a southern politician: a Yankee, born in New Jersey and raised in New York and Massachusetts. What’s more, he’s a Harvard grad who majored in physics and who later made so much money as the founder of healthcare management company HealthAmerica Corp that he has accepted no salary during his stint as governor.
So why is Bredesen speaking out now? My guess is that, even though he can’t run for governor again himself, he cares about the future of fellow Democrats in Tennessee and sincerely dislikes the direction the Democratic Party has been headed lately.
[NOTE: And Bredersen’s not alone, although (unlike Bredesen) some of the other governors doing the criticizing are indeed up for re-election, and so self-preservation may be motivating them. And they’re not all moderates, either.)
About one month ago, Tim Allen was on the “Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” and I noticed then the strategy some people are employing to move away from the stident progressive faction of the Democrat Party. The first part of the strategy, unfortunately, is to affirm Obama as a great man, which Allen did by saying he loved Obama. The second part of the strategy focuses on government spending and debt which is portrayed as unsustainable. The third part of the strategy is to reaffirm Obama which is really a repeat of the first part, but very necessary to people who are nervous about their own reputation and possible destruction lest they stray too far from the party line.
It has been widely rumored since he was only a mayor that he only ran as a Democrat because that is the only way to get elected in Nashville (or at least it was). Even though most of the democrats in Tennessee are comparatively fairly conservative he didn’t even mesh well with them.
Of course that is why he carried Tennessee as he did – Sundquist was a fairly easy person to beat when Bredesen did the first time, for his second term it was a waste to run anyone against him.
During the dems primaries a few talked about him on a national level – I think that would be interesting. For one thing having voted for him both times and watching him be more conservative than the vast majority of Republicans I would dearly love to see if he “sold out” (so to speak) to win a primary. Then if he won (and assuming he didn’t sell out) it would then be interesting to see how the left would react – it was certainly entertaining to see when he started cutting TennCare.
At least at the state level he did everything he promised he would, didn’t do anything he promised not too, and did so even on his second term where he didn’t have to worry over elections. The only”blip” was some conceal carry legislation he vetoed (and then had the legislature overturn his veto). Some thought that was a testing of the waters for a national campaign – that a fore mentioned selling out – me I just think even the best get confused and make bad decisions sometimes.
They threw the bums out but the new regime was more twisted than the old begetting another purging and then another. Each sucessive Politburo became more and more repressive until it ended with the crowning of a new monarch to replace the old one. His name was Emperor Napoleon, the Frenchman from a less than French parentage. Historical patterns rhymes with each retelling.
One can only hope that as these rats desert the sinking ship they will find themselves swimming through a gigantic oil slick which has be set on fire.
1. As you probably know, Neo, Glenn Reynolds has occasionally floated Bredesen’s name for national office.
2. Hong, I fear a vicious circle in which the failed Bush Presidency is supplanted by an even worse Obama Presidency, which will be replaced by an even worse ? Presidency, which will…
There is a real irony that Bredeson replaced a Republican, Don Sundquist, who was complicity in trying to use a TennCare (Medicaid) situation to leverage in a state income tax. An early version of the Tea Party rose up and stopped them. Much like the current criticism of the media “elites,” they were always disparaged. One local station anchor referred to them as the “Lexus Brigade.” Ironically, she went to work for Bredeson as a spokesman.
A point about Obama — he is, in general, a completely controlled person. That is, he simply does not reveal himself. People who have been in meetings with him often assume that he agrees with them, when such is not the case. During the campaign he was assumed to be a centrist, though I don’t know that there was any evidence for that.
Obama is nice-looking, tall and lean, and has a wonderful smile. I’ve often wondered if anyone has measured the effect of that in the election? Contrasted, of course, with McCain, who looked just plain old. Yes, I think a lot of people were misled about who Obama is, including a lot of people who should have known better.
We met Phil Bredesen, briefly and in the way voters meet candidates, back when he was first running for mayor of Nashville. He made a low-key, early-campaign-style stop at our son’s Little League game one summer evening. He seemed nice enough, offered a decent hand-shake, but was otherwise unremarkable and a bit colorless. Then, after winning the mayoral election, he got involved in moving the Houston Oilers to Nashville. We had moved to Nashville from Houston ourselves, and held a long-lasting, deep-seated and very cordial dislike for Bud Adams, the Oilers’ owner. That whole thing turned us against Bredesen. I recall seeing bumper stickers around town with Adams’ photo on them paired with the slogan, “Hey Nashville, this Bud’s for YOU!” After that, we couldn’t support Bredesen in his run for governor, even though Sundquist had been awful.
But you know what, the Titans have worked out OK, and Bud Adams appears to have been neutered, silenced. I don’t know, maybe Mayor Phil knew which buttons to push.
Then, after Bredesen ran and won and became Governor Phil, he came up against TennCare and amazed nearly everyone by being honest about how awful it was, and how we had to cut it back, curtail it. It can’t have been easy for him, because nearly the entire state liberal/left establishment came at him with bared claws. He earned our respect, though, and kept it thereafter by holding firm and being a pretty strong force for good sense in the Tennessee Democrat Party–against strong forces and long odds. I’ve come to regard him as an honest and sensible man who is genuinely worth at least a second look for national office. I have trouble understanding why he’d enter such a fray on the Democrat side now, with the national Democrat Party having turned into what it is. I’m with Glenn Reynolds, though, and think he should be considered. I’d like to see him running with Mitch Daniels (Daniels at the top of the ticket–I’m a very big Daniels booster). Can you say bipartisan?
Right, Obama has a wonderful smile. Those brilliant white teeth and all. But have you ever noticed how it comes on as though someone living inside his mouth has hit the “smile” button? It dazzles, but it’s seemingly programed to do that. Put it beside the bird he’s been occasionally fond of flipping, and something does not compute. Ugh.
Bredesen looks a bit rodent-like sometimes, not great for charisma. Daniels is a bit ordinary-looking, except that he always looks so clean. I sort of like Pawlenty, too, with his kind of high-collar, 1900s-gent look–to me anyway. But never mind. I’m so tired of being dazzled, and if we’re never led by charisma again it will be fine with me. The truth is, charisma has done us little good and much harm. I don’t want to be engaged by a politician. I want to trust him enough that I can vote, go home, and live my life unmolested by his works.
What a welcome change it would be.
I’m a Tennessean tea partier type who voted for Bredesen twice. He did the state a big favor by being realistic about Tenncare.
betsybounds,
I’m with you on the scripted smiles. The only time they are spontaneous is when he thinks he has said something clever or amusing, which, of course, he never has.
I am really encouraged by the recent attention given to governors. They have real power to buck the prevailing wisdom of ideological Washington because they are closer to the taxpayers’s pocketbooks.