Center for American Progress

{{uspolitics}}'''Center for American Progress (CAP)''' is a [[George Soros]]-funded, [[liberal]], supposedly "progressive," [[Washington DC|Beltway]] [[think tank]] founded by ex-[[Bill Clinton]] Chief of Staff John Podesta. 

Since the 2008 elections, it has become a mouthpiece for [[Barack Obama]]. Its current president Neera Tanden entered the public eye after [[Joe Biden]] nominated her to direct the  Office of Management and Budget. It didn't go too well.

==Shilling for escalation==
During the run-up to the 2008 election, CAP, which had previously organized anti-[[Iraq War|Iraq]] protests with [[MoveOn.org]] during the [[George Bush|Shrub administration]], fell into line with the hawkish [[Democrats]] and pushed for [[Afghanistan War|escalation in Afghanistan]]. It has continued to cheerlead for Obama's surge in Afghanistan since then.<ref>[http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2007/12/40reasons.html 40 Reasons to Reengage in Afghanistan]</ref><ref>[http://www.prwatch.org/node/8297 How Obama Took Over the Peace Movement]</ref>

==Transparency? What transparency?==
Obama promised to take the issue of transparency "seriously" before he took office. While Obama's transition team did disclose its funding, there was one exception: CAP. CAP was summarily criticized for failing to disclose its funding and being intimately tied with Obama's transition into the White House.<ref>[http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1208/16318.html Where's transparency of Podesta group?]</ref> The CAP transition has been compared to the close ties [[Ronald Reagan|St. Ronnie]] had with the [[Heritage Foundation]] in the early '80s.
CAP also has ties to [[Common_Purpose_(USA)|Common Purpose]], a pressure group set up by former Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel to keep the dirty [[hippie]]s in line. Common Purpose has been used to goad liberal organizations and activist groups into self-censoring criticism of Obama, such as when liberal groups were told to "ratchet down the [[rhetoric]]" over [[Great Recession|Wall Street bonuses]].<ref>[http://firedoglake.com/2009/04/08/white-house-may-be-dictating-message-but-not-to-us/ White House may be dictating, but we're not stenographers]</ref>

==Sites they fund==
{{See also|Joe Biden#Neera Tanden|Joe Biden § Neera Tanden}}
The CAP Fund bankrolls the websites ThinkProgress and ClimateProgress. ThinkProgress was the former home of [[centrist]] blogger [[Matthew Yglesias]]  and the Wonk Room blog. ClimateProgress is run by physicist and [[environmentalist]] Joe Romm. Apparently, ''Time Magazine'' ''really'' likes Joe Romm.<ref>[http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1924149_1924153_1924209,00.html Heroes of the Environment], [http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/completelist/0,29569,1999770,00.html Best Blogs]</ref>

==Vast left-wing conspiracy==
During the [[Andrew Breitbart|Breitbart-gate]] scandal over [[ACORN]], CAP and associated sites issued statements supportive of ACORN. Due to this, as well as its association with numerous [[Fun:Liberal boogeyman|liberal boogeymen]], it is considered to be part of the vast Soros/ACORN conspiracy to spread 
reason
 
social democracy
 [[communism]] across the country.

==External links==
*[http://www.americanprogress.org/ CAP homepage]
*[http://thinkprogress.org/ ThinkProgress]
*[http://climateprogress.org/ ClimateProgress]
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==References==
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[[Category:Left-wing activists]]
[[Category:Liberalism]]
[[Category:Think tanks]]

Categories: Left-wing activists, Liberalism, Think tanks