Is Hillary Really a Moderate?

Of course not, but that's the image she's carefully cultivating with the press. She knows that in order to win, she has to run to the center, even if she'll govern from the left.

Raymond J. Keating has a look at four key votes which would have been great opportunities for Hillary to demonstrate her centrism. How did she do?

In the end, much of the New Democrat philosophy was the old Democrat philosophy spruced up with the rhetoric of moderation. Is that also the case with Sen. Clinton's so-called move to the center?

Well, it certainly is hard to detect any centrism in her overall Senate voting record. Each year, for example, she has scored 95 percent with the left-wing Americans for Democratic Action.

But let's focus on four key Senate votes that presented opportunities for Democrats to flash their moderate side. In October 2002, 29 Senate Democrats voted for the Iraq war resolution. Clinton was one of those 29, and while subsequently critical of how President George W. Bush has handled the war, she has not backed away from her vote. Score one for moderation.

Next came a vote on banning partial-birth abortions in 2003. Clinton made a splash earlier this year by calling abortion a "sad, even tragic choice."

Nonetheless, she could not bring herself to vote to stop the particularly horrific practice known as partial-birth abortion, although 17 of her fellow Democrats in the Senate did. Score one against moderation (and life).

While her husband generally grasps the benefits of free trade - noting in his speech "trade lifts people out of poverty" - Sen. Clinton opposed the Central American-Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement this past June. Ten Senate Democrats voted for it. Another blow against Hillary's moderation.

Finally, there was the confirmation vote in September for John Roberts as U.S. Supreme Court chief justice. With Roberts' powerful intellect, obvious mastery of the law and sound temperament, only an ideologue could have voted against him. Twenty-two Democrats gave a thumbs-up for Roberts, including some big-name liberals such as Christopher Dodd (Conn.) and Jay Rockefeller (W.Va.). Hillary Clinton voted against Roberts.

One key vote and some occasional centrist talk do not make a moderate. Just as Bill Clinton the New Democrat was more about political posturing than policy reality, Hillary Clinton's move to the center lacks credibility. It is simply Clintonian.

The vote on the war, the only one which could possibly indicate moderation, has gotten her in big trouble with the wacky left, so she'll probably have to do something to try and undo that damage, which will drive her further left.

She has her work cut out for her.