Many of their ideas, initially considered fringe and rejected or resisted by the liberal wing of the Democratic Party, eventually became mainstream and found their application during the Clinton presidency.

[6] As a result, he started working in 1966 for Sargent Shriver as an inspector of the war on poverty under Lyndon B. Johnson,[7] and was assigned to the Southeast region including Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia.

[8] It was during the Great Society programs that From came to reject the liberalism of the New Deal coalition whilst retaining what he saw as its spirit of innovation, and change the Democratic Party.

"[7] From 1981 to 1985, when he founded the DLC, he was executive director of the House Democratic Caucus, which was chaired by Representative Gillis William Long from Louisiana.

[7] As staff director, From worked on the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974, contributed to the stimulus package during the 1973–1975 recession,[11] and was called a "legislative genius" by Washingtonian magazine.

[2] As Matthew Murray writes in Roll Call, "Democrats appeared to be on the brink of a permanent excursion into the political wild following Walter Mondale's 49-state drubbing by incumbent President Ronald Reagan in 1984.

"[15] There are critics who disagree with the notion of Mondale and Dukakis being ultraliberals or that their loss could simply be explained by their liberalism, pointing for example that Mondale advocated for deficit reduction and that his proposed tax increases were intended to reduce the national debt, and that, as did Sidney Blumenthal in his book on the 1988 election, "Dukakis's politics of lowered expectations, his career of slashing budgets and tax cuts, made him seem a new kind of Democrat, a man of his time".

"[23] This view was also earlier echoed by American Enterprise Institute Senior Fellow Philip A. Wallach in his review of From's memoirs, stating that "the political moment for a Republican reorientation is bound to happen, especially if the Democrats retain the White House in 2016.

[22] Liberal critics argue that they promoted Republican policies,[29] that the New Democrats did not restore the core values of the New Deal or reverse the Reagan Revolution,[10] and that they sold out the party to the corporate world,[30] citing the fact that the DLC was financed by the Koch network, with two of its members being part of the DLC board of trustees,[31] among other corporate donors,[32] in contrast to their claims of being against special interests.

[43] In July 1992, From stated that "Clinton is going to win", and argued: "The American people have decided overwhelmingly that the country is going in the wrong direction, and George Bush won't reverse it.

[15] From was a strong supporter of free trade and NAFTA, and worked with Robert Rubin, Bill Daley, and Rahm Emanuel to run a campaign in order to pass it.

According to critics, the DLC had the most influence in the first two years of Clinton's first term, which resulted in the "Republican Revolution" and what has been called "the worst Democratic electoral setback of the century" at the 1994 midterm elections.

[7] In 1998, From began a dialogue with the then British prime minister Tony Blair and other world leaders as the DLC brand,[7] known as the Third Way, [56] became a model for resurgent center-left governments worldwide.

[57] In April 1999, he hosted a Third Way forum in Washington, D.C., with Bill and Hillary Clinton and Blair, alongside other center-left prime ministers in Europe like Massimo D'Alema of Italy, Gerhard Schröder of Germany, and Wim Kok of the Netherlands.

For example, in his review of From's memoirs, Matt Stoller observed: "Now, of course it's an exaggeration to say that Al From created the culture of the governing class in the modern Democratic Party.

"[54] In practice, during the last months of the 2000 United States presidential election, From's and the DLC's influence diminished as Al Gore took a more populist turn,[54] which many analysis credited for his surge in the polls in August and early September.

[63] Liberal critics also argue that New Democrats were followed by conservative reaction, such as Bush and Donald Trump, which in their view cast doubt about their success, that From and the DLC developed a too simplistic explanation by taking credit for all Democratic wins and attributing all party losses to its left wing or populism, wondering what is the point of governing if it means betraying the traditional Democratic values and adopting Republican policies, and that Gore had in fact won in 2000 after running a more liberal and populist campaign,[64] also pointing to Gore and Ralph Nader's combined total votes as majoritarian in favor of progressive politics.

"[22] In the aftermath of the 2004 loss for Democrats, From stated: "We have to come to grips with the real reason we lost this election: Whether we like it or not, too many Americans doubt whether we will be tough enough in the war on terror.

"[69] As the Democratic candidates continued to move to the left, From disagreed, saying that the DLC's ideas were more relevant than ever and were particularly reflected in Hillary Clinton's campaign.

"[74] In January 2018, From became an adjunct faculty member at Johns Hopkins University in the Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, Advanced Academic Programs.

Along with Alice McKeon, with whom he wrote The New Democrats and the Return to Power, From began co-teaching Political Ideas, Strategy, and Policy Implementation in the MA in Government program.

[75] His writings have appeared in numerous national publications, for example The Washington Post,[76] where he wrote "What Democrats can learn from the centrists who got Bill Clinton to the White House".

In the book, he writes: "The party's first imperative was to revive the American dream of expanding opportunity by fostering broad-based economic growth led by a robust private sector generating high-skill, high-wage jobs.

[4] The book received praise from Clinton, Tony Blair, the then Maryland governor Martin O'Malley, former White House Chief of Staff and Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel, former Mississippi governor Haley Barbour, Thomas J. Donohue of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Lanny Davis in the Washington Times, Kirkus Reviews,[91] Philip A. Wallach at the Brookings Institution,[25] and independent researcher Brian Gongol.

"[7] Stoller praised From, although he disagreed with many of his policies, for successfully building an organization that significantly changed the country, arguing that "the story he tells is believable.

"[7] Stoller, who criticized the book for not being complete and for lacking a clear definition of the old liberalism From was opposing,[7] nonetheless concluded: "But if you expect changes in philosophy and behavior due to these losses, you're going to have to do what Al From did.

"[7] For The Nation, historian Rick Perlstein offered a negative review of From's book, criticizing its historical inaccuracies, and writing that "the triumphs he trumpets have made America a worse place—objectively, empirically and on their own terms.

[7] Donald A. Baer, a White House communications director under Clinton, called From "one of the great heroes of American politics during the last quarter-century", and said: "His dedication to principles and finding a new way to modernize progressive government — along with his rambunctious spirit — contributed in a big way to saving the Democratic Party.

[7] In February 2010, Matt Bai of The New York Times Magazine cited the DLC under From's leadership, alongside the conservative Heritage Foundation, as one of the "most influential think tanks in history, the primary shapers of political thought at the end of the broadcast age".

In the memo, London attributed the loss to identity politics, and suggested to build a faction within the party to support "charismatic, moderate officeholders", with critics seeing it as an attempt to revive From's DLC.