Third Way fantasizes that Democrats want a more conservative Obama

With the demise of the corporatist right-wing Democratic Leadership Council (DLC), Third Way has filled the void. Unlike the then-flashy and public DLC, Third Way operates mostly in the shadows, presenting as small a target as possible while insidiously worming its way into the D.C. party establishment (see here, here and here).

But every once in a while they fly their colors.

In post-election polling by Third Way, and confirmed by national exit polls, the plurality of those who pulled the lever for President Barack Obama were not liberals but self-described moderates. In fact, 56 percent of those who voted for the president defined their own ideology as either moderate or conservative. A supermajority of Obama voters said they wanted the president to be more moderate or conservative in his second term compared with his first. And overwhelmingly, they wanted the president and members of Congress from both parties to compromise rather than stand their ground. In fact, the most unanimously supported statement in the post-election poll of 800 Obama voters was this: 'Democrats and Republicans both need to make real compromises to come to an agreement on fixing the deficit.' A full 96 percent agreed with that statement.

I dug up that poll on their website, and got such insight as:

[W]hen it comes to winning Senate races, Democrats must recognize that the base of their vote is actually moderates, not liberals.

Got that? Third Way wants you to believe that the Democratic base is actually non-liberals who want Obama to be more conservative in his second term. You buying it? Of course not, and fear not, your gut instincts are correct, as I prove below the fold.