Moderates Enjoy Both Conventions

It hasn’t been a satisfying summer for red-meat liberals and conservatives, both of whom were relegated to the shadows as centrists took control of the conventions.

On the surface, the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles was the opposite of the Republican event in Philadelphia.

With its conservative base secure, the GOP put on a smartly run show that ran to the left of its platform. Colin Powell and George W. Bush noted that they hadn’t even read the platform. The winners? The moderates.

The Democrats, having already decided on a centrist vision, staged a convention designed to woo disaffected liberals who may be sneaking a peek at Ralph Nader. The winners? Also the moderates.

The two major parties took different paths, but both arrived at the center.

Democratic presidential nominee Al Gore is the product of a party that was banished to the wilderness from 1968 to 1992. For 20 out of 24 years, voters in the presidential race rejected old-style liberalism.

Then came Bill Clinton, with intellectual support from the Democratic Leadership Council. The DLC was formed by Southern centrists who thought the liberalism of Tip O’Neill and Ted Kennedy was in need of mothballs.

Clinton won two terms and currently has high poll numbers for his governance because he has been a New Democrat. Now that fellow DLC members Gore and running mate Joe Lieberman are in charge, it is clear that issues such as free trade, welfare reform and fiscal prudence have carried the day within the Democratic Party.

This year, what passed for controversy was the aborted fund-raiser at the quaint Playboy mansion. Not exactly Mayor Daley’s cops cracking heads in Chicago.

Quaint also seems apt in describing Tuesday night’s parade of old-guard liberals, such as Ted Kennedy and Jesse Jackson. And though the convention was held in their back yard, Hollywood liberals had to settle for bankrolling Clinton’s presidential library in exchange for goodbye hugs.

The Gore-Lieberman ticket is the antithesis of Hollywood glamour, and neither man will be mistaken for Clinton as a speaker. But Lieberman in particular seemed to connect with his “regular Joe” persona. Plus, he’s good with a joke. Gore, on the other hand, remains several degrees below warm. But at least he knows it.

The good news for voters is that both tickets are made up of men whose personalities and peccadilloes won’t overwhelm the issues. Clinton, like Elvis, has left the building.

What the conventions demonstrated is that Democrats and Republicans have arrived at a consensus on what constitutes the key issues: health care, balanced budgets, e-commerce, education and the environment.

Bush acknowledges that the federal government has a role in education and in protecting the environment. Gore acknowledges that free trade and making a buck are not evil. Both embrace diversity and want to preserve Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid in some form. Both pledge allegiance to Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan.

So, competing moderate solutions to agreed-upon problems will drive this fall’s debates. And the Pat Buchanans, Ralph Naders, Jerry Browns and Pat Robertsons will be mere objects in the side-view mirror, smaller than they seem.