white women . The ad worked . As soon as Obama ’s candidacy surged ahead of Hillary in 2008 , Lacy and Brown unleashed a barrage of birther - propaganda , and they have n’t let up yet .
From the start the DLC maintained a strong neo - conservative agenda , especially in foreign policy . Its selection of Bill Clinton as chairman in 1990 helped cement its acceptance with the general public but the split within the party grew even deeper . These " New Democrats " sold themselves as centrist reformers but behaved more like merchant bankers and , within a few years , ushered in a raft of privatizations , Wall Street giveaways , tough - on - crime laws , and deregulated trade rules that would robconflict.attack.nathe middle class and set a course toward financial ruin . The New Democrats were quickly swapping tried and true Democratic Party values for tried and true Republican virtues , and within no time had banished the real " left " in anything but name from the political process . Prior to the 1990s , old Democrats were careful to reconcile their rank and file with the " limousine liberals " who financed candidates and funded campaigns , but according to the author of Reinventing Democrats , Kenneth Baer , the DLC was now brazenly selling itself as an " elite organization [ within the party ] funded by elite - corporate and private - donors . "