Obama's move to the center

Smart politics necessary to win? Or shooting himself in the foot?

In 2004 I felt part of the reason Kerry lost was trying to run as
Republican Lite. Better to run as a liberal (why is it a dirty word?
You dont' see Bush or McCain shrinking back from the word
'conservative') and articulate your point.

Huffington doesn't like it:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/memo-to-obama-moving-to-t_b_110026.html

Running to the middle in an attempt to attract undecided swing voters
didn't work for Al Gore in 2000. It didn't work for John Kerry in
2004. And it didn't work when Mark Penn (obsessed with his
"microtrends" and missing the megatrend) convinced Hillary Clinton to
do it in 2008.

.....

Pulling it off the shelf and replacing it with a political product
geared to pleasing America's vacillating swing voters -- the ones who
will be most susceptible to the fear-mongering avalanche that has
already begun -- would be a fatal blunder.
.