You gotta use a media perspective. He's not a die-hard communist: he represented moneylenders. "Moderate" means the corporate wing of the Democrat party. And to be fair to them, he did up the partisanship as he ran for President. As a Senator, he was happy to play the back-scratching game with Republicans, which is what passes for moderate among those types of crooks. In order to be the de facto leader of the Democrat party, he had to toughen up on Republicans. It's a different job than Senator where your primary job is to bring home the bacon to your state (while enriching yourself of course).
You gotta use a media perspective. He's not a die-hard communist: he represented moneylenders. "Moderate" means the corporate wing of the Democrat party. And to be fair to them, he did up the partisanship as he ran for President. As a Senator, he was happy to play the back-scratching game with Republicans, which is what passes for moderate among those types of crooks. In order to be the de facto leader of the Democrat party, he had to toughen up on Republicans. It's a different job than Senator where your primary job is to bring home the bacon to your state (while enriching yourself of course).
That’s a good way of putting it. I guess when I hear moderate I think of someone with a few right leaning views. But the definition has changed.