A Bold Departure

By Charlie Cook
© National Journal Group Inc.

February 1, 2005

This column was originally featured on CongressDaily/AM on February 1, 2005.

It's not too often that you see an elected official make a really interesting, even daring political move, one that potentially antagonizes an element of that politician's base. But that's exactly what Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., did.

Last week, Clinton spoke at the annual conference of the New York State Family Planning Providers in Albany. After saying the obligatory things that any elected official who favors abortion rights would say to a group that supports abortion rights, she then spoke about how she had "respect [for] those who believe with all their hearts and conscience that there are no circumstances under which any abortion should ever be available."

She went on to talk about the need for those in the abortion-rights community to find common ground with those with whom they disagreed on the subject.

"I believe we can all recognize that abortions in many ways represent a sad, even tragic choice to many, many women," the senator said. "Often it's a failure of our system of education, health care and preventative services. It's often a result of family dynamics. This decision is a profound and complicated one; a difficult one, often the most difficult that a woman will ever make. The fact is that the best way to reduce the number of abortions is to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies in the first place."

Clinton also focused on the role of parents, noting that "Teenagers who have strong emotional attachments to their parents are much less likely to become sexually active at an early age."

This wasn't "it takes a village." This was "it takes a family."

During the speech, Clinton also discussed the importance of family planning funding, of the need for private insurance companies to cover contraceptives as well as coverage for the poor and uninsured, of the need to make emergency contraception more widely available and, finally, the need for better quality pre-natal care so that unintended children can have a better chance of growing up healthy.

In something that one has not heard much from Democrats in recent years, Clinton went on to say that "research shows that the primary reason that teenage girls abstain is because of their religious and moral values. We should embrace this, and support programs that reinforce the idea that abstinence at a young age is not just the smart thing to do, it is the right thing to do." Clinton added that "we should also recognize what works and what doesn't work, and to be fair, the jury is still out on the effectiveness of abstinence-only programs."

On one level, many will accurately see Clinton's speech as a move to project her as a more centrist and electable presidential candidate for 2008, and an acknowledgement that Democrats have been losing the values war and, with it, losing voters in small town and rural America.

While it is fair to say there was a great deal of truth in what Clinton had to say, these are views that are largely left unsaid in the world of Democratic politics. When then-Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mark Warner in 2001 met with officials of the National Rifle Association and sought a middle ground position that would be acceptable to gun-owners and Second Amendment enthusiasts in small towns and rural parts of Virginia, as well as advocates of gun control in Northern Virginia, many Democrats and liberals yelled and screamed at the heresy that Warner had committed, only to quiet down when he won the governorship.

Warner's victory was due, in large part, to his ability to diminish Republican margins in those same small towns and rural parts of the state.

The simple truth of politics is that any time a party's base is completely satisfied with the debate and direction of the party, the party is doing too little to reach to the middle. At the same time, a party that spends too much effort reaching toward the center will find itself with a despondent base.

The moves by both Clinton and Warner showed good politics and good policy. Too often, elected officials become so focused on satisfying their base that the voters between the 40-yard lines find no one talking to them at all.

Whether Clinton is successful in repositioning herself, and helping to reposition her party, remains to be seen. Attitudes toward her, both positive and negative, are seemingly set in concrete. But although I feel skeptical about whether she will be seen as sufficiently electable by Democrats for them to nominate her in 2008, there is something else that I recall. I think about how many times in her husband's career that he looked cornered, but like a nimble quarterback, he managed to slip out of the pocket, evade the rushers and gain a few yards or even score a touchdown.

Whether it works or not, we'll see, but it was a pretty deft move and it was disappointing to see many high profile opponents of abortion not acknowledge her effort but instead respond with disdain and ridicule.