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corporate centers of economic power by choosing such officials as Treasury
Secretary Lloyd Bentsen, Commerce Secretary Ron Brown, trade representative
Mickey Kantor and Secretary of State Warren Christopher.

Soon after becoming president, Clinton abandoned his few initial stances
that might qualify as "left." He quickly deserted his brief position for gay
rights in the military. Under fire for his nomination of progressive law
professor Lani Guinier to be assistant attorney general for civil rights,
Clinton tossed her overboard.

In sharp contrast, the new president fought like hell for the
corporate-beloved trade agreement known as NAFTA. And he spread his wings as
a deficit hawk, while his campaign's pledges of "public investment" fell to
earth with paltry line items. Less than five months into his presidency,
Newsweek lauded Clinton's "shift to the right" and urged him to show "the
backbone" to stay there.

But none of that has stopped the media's clucking about the Clinton
administration's early "lurch to the left." The myth never died, though it
was quickly ripe for debunking.

In real time, one of the most astute debunkers was Barbara Ehrenreich. As
the only writer from the left with a regular column in a major U.S.
newsmagazine (she later got the boot), Ehrenreich wrote a Time piece in
mid-June 1993 that directly addressed the nascent mythology. The incoming
president's leftward lurch was "a neat parable," she noted, "but it never
happened."

Ehrenreich added: "The lurch to the left is like the 'stab in the back'
invented by right-wing Germans after World War One: an instant myth designed
to discredit all one's political enemies in one fell swoop. ... Maybe it's
been so long that we've forgotten what 'left' is and how to tell it from
right. At the simplest, most ecumenical level, to be on the left means to
take the side of the underdog, whoever that may be: the meek, the poor and,
generally speaking, the 'least among us,' as a well-known representative of
the left position put it a couple of millenniums ago."

More than 15 years after Barbara Ehrenreich wrote those words, the tall tale
of President Clinton's lurch to the left is still in the air. Warning
Democratic politicians against being "liberal" or moving "left" remains a
time-honored -- even compulsive -- media ritual. But as Barack Obama fills
key economic posts in his administration, the left-leery and
corporate-friendly press is likely to be quite content.

Norman Solomon's books include "War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits
Keep Spinning Us to Death," which has been adapted into a documentary film
of the same name. He was an elected Obama delegate to the Democratic
National Convention.