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The term was first used by President of the United States Bill Clinton's chief political advisor Dick Morris as a way to describe his strategy for getting Clinton reelected in the 1996 presidential election. It is often referred to as "Clintonian triangulation". Morris advocated a set of policies that were different from the traditional policies of the Democratic Party. The idea Clinton used behind some of these policies was to be "more Republican than the Republicans." These policies included welfare reform, tax cuts for the middle class and balanced budgets. One of the most widely cited capstones of Clinton's triangulation strategy was when, in his 1996 State of the Union Address, Clinton declared that the "Era of Big Government is over."
Use after Bill Clinton
Triangulation was emulated during the 2000 presidential election in the Bush campaign's use of the term "compassionate conservative".
Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton has been referred to as "Mrs. Triangulation"<1> for her call for dramatic increases in the military budget<2> and for receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in contributions from corporate lobbyists.<3>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangulation_(politics)