Labels and Such: Liberal, Frontrunner

Confucius says--A preview on future, by take poll here:

Question--What's the best outcome as Clinton and Obama battle for delegates?

Obama wins quickly and builds a transpartisan movement.
(1530) 52%

Clinton wins quickly and turns her energy on the GOP.
(225) 7%

Clinton and Obama duke it out until the brokered convention in August.
(366) 12%

They team up quickly to create an unbeatable dream ticket.
(779) 26%

Is America ready for being called liberal? What does this mean, anyway. Is progressive any different? President Kennedy has a few words below. I'm really looking forward to comparing some choice quotes from the current administration in the history books, if I live that long. I'll be willing to bet that wimpy, week-kneed, defeatist will be among them. Our foreign policy has been a disaster, as has our prisons'. You'd think our slogan has been Every Foreigner a Terrorist or Prisoner, or Low Wage Worker (read Slave).

Any thoughts on this? I'd call myself fiscally conservative and socially liberal, but I'm ready to fight the world and occupy it too, just like a hawk. Just because I'm ready does not mean that I would. The question is, what's best for America. A long slow occupation of Iraq and Iran, military buildup vis a vis China? Or economic development and diplomatic cooperation lifting up the weak and poor.

Here's Eric:

The label will be forced on Democrats regardless of their preference, and weaseling out of it will only make them look wimpish, as it did Kerry. Rather than shying away from the L-word, Democrats should embrace it proudly, while ensuring that their definition is the one that carries the day.

But this is the part I like:

Speaking to New York's Liberal Party in September 1960, Kennedy proclaimed, "What do our opponents mean when they apply to us the label 'liberal'? If by 'liberal' they mean, as they want people to believe, someone who is soft in his policies abroad, who is against local government and who is unconcerned with the taxpayer's dollar, then...we are not that kind of 'liberal.' But if by a 'liberal' they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people--their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights and their civil liberties--someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a 'liberal' then I'm proud to say I'm a 'liberal.'"