I don't think Obama has changed or moved to the center - I think what he has done is that in the primaries he focused on the part of his platform that appealed to dems, and now he is emphasizing those parts that appeal more broadly. Many of his positions are extremely nuanced, and the republicans are trying to take advantage of it. Obama should say that he doesn't have the super simply kind of thinking that Bush had - where he boiled everything into black and white. That instead he asks people to study his positions and see that they have always been carefully thought out and there is always been very particular conditions to his position.
Sorry to have to disagree, but Barack has been making several moves to "the center" recently and is busy ticking off his base. That's OK... I'm not at all surprised and think it is good strategy. It's a very typical move during the course of a campaign for President. You get yourself the nomination by appealing to enough voters in and out of your political party to insure you capture that nomination. Then you change your campaign to appeal to a broader range of people. Unlike the 1960's, for example, when Jack Kennedy and Richard Nixon squared off, with most of the country belonging to one major party or the other, today sees the electorate with a huge number of independents occupying the center. They sway one direction or another, depending on a host of things, obviously, but the point is that they have to be wooed. That's what Obama is doing. Wooing the middle of the electorate. I may not like a lot of what he's doing right now, but I understand it. He's not trying to appeal to longtime Democrats. He's trying to appeal to Reagan Republicans... Democrats who switched to the GOP because of the appeal of Ronald Reagan. Many still share Democratic values, particularly the social agenda of the Democratic Party, and have held their noses while voting GOP these last few decades because the GOP appealed to their pocket book and grabbed the "high ground" on national security. Those same people, thanks to George W. Bush and the previous GOP Congress, have figured out that the GOP economic policies were highly flawed, which is very much hitting home at the worst possible time for the GOP, and that the Republican policies on national security, while having some successes, where responsible for a disastrous war and occupation in Iraq and the alienation of our long time allies. Time for a change. In my opinion. Nuanced or not, Obama needs to make his positions easy to understand for the general public. I think he does a pretty good job of that and will refine his positions to make them easier to understand for the casual listener as the campaign unfolds. Impeach Bush/Cheney.
It's easy enough to figure out. If he's in Massachusetts, he stands on his left foot and if he's in Montana he stands on his right foot. McCain does the same thing, but he doesn't dance as well. See Charles Durning in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mNDHTfdn1A
I just don't see where these moves to the center actually are - he hasn't said anything that is new. His opposition to FISA was that there wasn't supervision from the courts, but once that was address he didn't oppose it - that's not a move to the center is it? He's stated long before that he would take consideration from commanders into account when withdrawing troops - again nothing different. So where exactly is this change? The faith based programs? Even there he's saying it would have to abide with federal Equal employment opportunities legislation which bush's programs do not. I could be wrong, I just haven't actually seen anyone point out what's changed in his policies in clear language. I find that someone eyebrow raising.
