A day after Bernie Sanders won the New Hampshire Democratic presidential primary, President Obama pushed back against the Vermont Independent's contention that you can't be both a moderate and a progressive.
“Some of my best friends are moderates, but you can’t be progressive and moderate at the same time,” Sanders said at the last Democratic debate, rejecting rival Hillary Clinton’s argument that she is “a progressive who gets things done” despite previously “beg[ing] guilty” of being moderate.
Though under pressure, Sanders said he did consider President Obama to be a progressive after Clinton derided the independent senator as the “self-proclaimed gatekeeper of progressivism,” a description that excludes the current occupant of the White House. Sanders confirmed that Clinton is part of a larger “establishment.”
IN address In the Illinois Legislature on Wednesday, the president defended his legacy, arguing that although he is part of the establishment, he remains a progressive. “We are trying to find a common language [with Republicans] that doesn’t make me any less of a Democrat or any less of a progressive,” Obama said in Springfield, where his presidential campaign launched nine years ago. “It means I'm trying to get things done.”
Obama went on to call the debate in the Democratic primaries about who “isn't a real progressive” damaging. Americans must reject “the idea that compromise is a betrayal by one side,” Obama urged lawmakers. “We must insist on the opposite: this can be a real victory that means progress for all parties.”
“So when I hear people from either party brag about their refusal to compromise as an achievement in itself, I'm not impressed,” Obama said. “All of this prevents what most Americans consider real accomplishments, like fixing roads, educating children, passing a budget, cleaning up the environment, making our streets safe.”
Obama's comments strongly signal that he prefers his former secretary of state to Sanders, who just this week criticized Obama Administration Immigration Enforcement Initiatives.
“I don't think there's any doubt that he wants Hillary to win the nomination and believes she will be the best candidate in the fall and the most effective president in delivering on what he has accomplished,” former White House press secretary Jay Carney said this week.
The President has made it clear, while remaining neutral, that he supports Secretary Clinton and would prefer to see her as the nominee,” Carney. said CNN on Wednesday. “He will not accept her officially until it is clear that she will be a candidate. “I think he maintains the tradition of not interfering in party primaries.”
