Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm John Favro. On today's show, writer and founder of the slow-boring newsletter, Mataglaces.

We've had a lot of people on the show make the case for why the Democratic Party should move to the left, and a lot of progressive candidates who represent that direction.

We've also had plenty of people, including us, critique the Democratic establishment.

We haven't really had someone on, at least in a while,

make a full-throated case for a center-left politics

that emphasizes moderation.

I know that probably sounds exciting

and not at all annoying to many of you.

Matt recently wrote a piece titled

How the Center Left can come

back in 2008. That's based in part on a series of critical, tough questions that Nate Silver

recently posed to the center left. I found both Nate's questions and Matt's response

really useful in understanding where folks like Matt are coming from and what they're looking

for from the party in 2028 and beyond.

I also had plenty of questions of my own, so I invited Matt on to see if he had some answers.

And he did.

We talked about how important issue positions are in a presidential primary, the role of charisma and the ability to get attention,

why Democrats have lost in recent elections,

and who on the current bench might be able to win in 2028.

It was a great conversation, and we will get to it in a moment.

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