Oh for crying out loud...

Have you EVER seen a presidential campaign before?

What you've just asserted is essentially a basic FACT of how ANY Democratic candidate operates (the GOP candidate does the reverse).  Swing to the party's ideological wing for the primary, swing towards the center (rightward, for a Democrat) for the General Election.

When it happens, please don't fash yourself.  It's kind of like watching the sun rise in the east; oh, look, it's happening again!

The question will then be... as it is now... from where will they actually govern?

This election's an exception on the Right, because, due to the collapse of some candidates and the generally weak and anemic litter of candidates the GOP had to start with, they've selected McCain, who has a severe problem... his base (the right) doesn't trust him.  So he's having to run right, hard, to try to shore up the base... at the very time when a candidate ought to be able to start distancing him/herself from the ideological wing.