Here’s Gerard Baker of the London Times. He concludes thus:
Most remarkably, for all the transformation in US politics wrought by the past four years, Americans themselves do not seem to have undergone any great ideological conversion. In 2004 exit pollsters asked voters how they would identify their politics. The answers were 21 per cent liberal (Left), 45 per cent moderate, 34 per cent conservative. On Tuesday, the same question elicited these responses: 22 per cent liberal, 44 per cent moderate, 34 per cent conservative. President Obama and his jubilant supporters in Congress will surely not need reminding that this is still a centre-right country.
Much as I would like to be reassured, I think this begs the question as to what self-described ‘moderates’ mean when they label themselves that way. My guess is that the very idea of what a ‘moderate’ is has shifted quite some way to the left of late. In many respects, the right’s key job over the next four years will be to push it back again.