Another Headscratcher From Newsweek

Newsweek's Jon Meecham freely admits that we've seen the Hoffman Effect before, 45 years ago when Barry Goldwater's reactionary conservatism broke the country in two.

As Evan Thomas argues in this week's cover, the Reagan style was one that might not have passed muster with Palin's adoring fans. Reagan realized that movement conservatives like him needed moderate conservatives to win and ultimately to govern. In 1976, in his challenge to President Ford, Reagan announced that he would run with Pennsylvania Sen. Richard Schweiker, a Rockefeller Republican. It never came to that, but four years later, in Detroit, Reagan seriously considered only two men for the ticket: Ford and George H.W. Bush, both men from the middle, not the far right, of the Republican Party. It is difficult to imagine the 2012 nominee choosing a more moderate running mate, not least because there are so few moderates left in the GOP. Even those of centrist inclinations are finding it virtually impossible to work with the administration for fear of a backlash from the base.

So who does Meecham blame for the current problem?
Why, Obama and the Democrats, of course.  The very next paragraph:

We have been to this movie before, when the unreconstructed liberals of the fading New Deal–Great Society coalition obstinately refused to acknowledge the reality that America is a center-right nation, and that Democrats who wish to win national elections cannot run on the left. We are at our best as a country when there is something approaching a moderate space in politics. The middle way is not always the right way—far from it. But sometimes it is, and a wise nation should cultivate a political spirit that allows opponents to cooperate without fearing an automatic execution from their core supporters. Who knew that the real rogues in American politics would be the ones who dare to get along?

It's not 1964 that Meecham is channeling here, but 1995, where a chastened Bill Clinton turned to running as a conservative Democrat, and got impeached for his troubles, his policies to appease the "center-right" setting the table for both the dot-com bust and the meltdown that followed eight years later.
It's the Democrats who have to change in Meecham's view, who have to swing hard to the right to try to capture the disaffected Republicans in the middle in order to save the country.

Sarah Palin and the Teabaggers are allowed to do whatever they want, in fact Meecham seems they are inevitable.  The Democrats have to change, you see.  Never the GOP.

And there's your Village for you.

[UPDATE 5:57 PM]  Scott "Obama Derangement Index" Rasmussen and Doug "Clinton's Pollster" Schoen have some friendly advice for the President:  Obama should triangulate now, throw away his domestic agenda, and just be a Republican.  That will win him the election for sure!