There’s an interesting piece in the Washington Post about how Hillary is considered to have moved to the center recently. The writer points out that this has become commonly acccepted as true (I’ve even written about it here and here) simply because she’s done things that are indicative of a centrist in her campaign for 2008.

However, there’s good reason to believe she’s not moving to the center at all. Hillary has a long record of being known as a ‘flaming liberal’ but acting in a very republican way. Here are some facts about her that I was surprised to find:

  • She has spoken at length since 1990 about her christian youth group years, giving guest sermons for a United Methodist Church, and the importance of faith and theologians like Bonhoeffer.
  • She has always been more of a hawk than a dove
  • She has consistently stuck with the same belief her husband had about abortion: that it be ’safe, legal, and rare’ while encouraging abstinence as an alternative to sex

There’s a good chance that the press will continue to misrepresent Hillary because what is known about her beliefs and her actual beliefs seem to be discrepant. I can already imagine the GOP response to Hillary being the same that was used against past candidates (’flip-flopping’, etc.) but her record may save her on this one.