Friedman is arguably the prime example of establishment liberal thinking. From his putatively "centrist" perch at the New York Times Froegin Affairs Columinst desk, Friedman's views are not at all out of the establishment liberal mainstream (and, by extension, the critical mass of the Democratic party).

Socially liberal, devil take the hindmost on trade (recall Clinton and friends on NAFTA), pro-Israel to a fault, supporter for American imperialism under the liberal veneer of "do-goodism" in Serbia and Iraq, there's really nothing which distinguishes him from other wealthy American "liberals" than the fact that his prose is exceptionally poor and his logic quite often extremely crappy.

I'd put him somewhere between Kerry and Lieberman on the political spectrum...

The Hun is always either at your throat or at your feet. Winston Churchill