This "shifting to the center" meme is a right-wing smear to define BO as a flip-flopper.  Barack Obama has always held these positions.  Check the records; Read Audacity of Hope; Please check your issues.  BO did not shift to the center as many right-wing pundits are claiming. The followings are positions that BO has held for as long as we've known him:

On NAFTA - No change, BO is and has been a free-trader all along but wanted trade-deals with labor standards to protect American workers.

On Guns - BO has always supported the right to bear arm as contained in 2nd Amendment (that's why he won Idaho, Colorado, etc. in the primary)

On Abortion - his current position has always been his position (that's why they EMILY's list attacked him in New Hampshire).

On Death Penalty - Go and check BO's Illinois record, where he led the reform there not to ban death penalty but to ensure a transparent and judicious death penalty system.

On Faith Based initiatives - Read Audacity of Hope.  This has been BO's position all along.

On Iraq -  BO has always had this "one or two brigade a month withdrawal" for a 16 months timeline in consultation with Commanders on the ground.

So in conclusion, I give it to the Republican for having succeeded in fooling the Democrats and the Press to embrace their talking point.   They wanted to define BO as a flip-flopper the way they did against John Kerry.  Ask yourself, why were the Press and McCain campaign so fast to twist BO's reiteration of his Iraq position?  And this is the same position he's held since the first day he came up with "one or two brigade a month withdrawal" for a 16 months timeline.  Same position from September of 2007

So wake up folks; read your copy of Audacity of Hope; check BO's records to see that he's a pragmatic left-of-the-center democrat.

A late term abortion without justification is murder.
Unless the mother's life or physical health is in danger, the baby should be allowed to live and his/her life should be protected by law. The little baby has a right to live like each one of us.  Mental distress; we all have that at work from time to time.
It should not be reason enough to kill a baby.  Do you cut off one of your arms whenever you're mentally distressed from work or family?

No defenseless baby deserves to die for the Mom's temporal mental distress.

Did anyone review McCain's latest Economic plan and its fantasies including how he plans to balance the budget in four years using "Victory gains" from deficit financing of Iraq and Afghanistan wars?

Go to show you that McCain has no clue when it comes to economics.

SusanG at Kos said it best:  
"just because I stop charging on my credit card doesn't mean I'm suddenly making income to pay off the debt I've run up, does it?"

So the next time John McCain admits that he knows nothing about economics, better believe him.

One of the many insults that get thrown at Obama supporters goes something like this,  "Is that more of this 'hope' and 'change' you Obamabots bought into?"

I keep seeing the words "hope" and "change" being thrown at Obama supporters as if they were spears. I see this in comment after comment. "What is this 'hope' you speak of? Where is the 'change' Obama talks about"?

Apparently, it is difficult for some people to understand these terms. Some don't want to understand. They simply want to use those terms as insults to imply that anyone who believes in them is naïve.

Well, I've got news for those nay-sayers. Hope and change are real. Both are greatly needed in this country after the last eight years under Bush/Cheney. Follow with me after the fold, while I try to explain exactly what these words mean to me.

Politics is a strange, and often fascinating, process. People get involved with politics for any of a number of reasons. Some people view politics as a game. Others view it as a participatory sport. Some see it as a means to make a living, or in some cases, a fortune. I can understand all of those views, but I don't share them.

To me, politics is a means to an end. In my view, politics should be used to advance an agenda. When played for any other reason, such as fun, to gain power, for profit, or even as a means to pass the time, politics becomes about you. When this happens, politics ceases to be a means to an end and becomes nothing more than an ego trip.

What does all of this have to do with PUMA? It's really quite simple. The people in PUMA and like-minded groups have a purpose. You may not like their goals. I know I don't. You and I may disagree with their tactics, or their rhetoric, or even their goals, but that doesn't take away the fact that they are working towards an end result.

I'm not going to start off with a disclaimer about who I'm going to vote for or who I supported in the primary. Draw your own conclusions.

I'm also going to keep it short, because I want to get out of the house and enjoy this national holiday when we celebrate the beginning of the process that found the first democracy since the ancient Greeks.

During the primaries, I watched as people on both sides bashed the other side and the opposing candidates. There were some really egregious comments coming from all sides. The rage was fueled by trolls from the GOP side. Apparently, some people want to keep the anger at a fever pitch and are doing everything they can to disrupt the Democratic party.

There has been a lot of talk this week about Obama's sudden lurch to the right. While it is fun to watch his supporters run around waving their hands in the air and crying, we must not become too complacent.

Most of this week's accusations of flip-flopping have been a little weak on substance. Guns, no real change, but we can still throw it in there to add to the count. The same holds true for abortion, death penalty, and NAFTA. I wish we had stronger claims for a "lurch" to the right on these, but maybe if we keep bringing them up no one will really notice.

The biggie is FISA. Hopefully, no one will notice that the bill in question was passed in the House and not in the Senate. They also might not notice that Obambi said he was still against immunity and would work to remove it in the Senate version. Don't give up, guys and gals, keep pounding on this one. It's our best shot.

I'm going to make this really short because my point is very simple.  However, I'd like to preface that point with saying that I fully support Obama as the nominee, I think he will win, I've given him money, even though I can't imagine a bigger supporter of Hillary Clinton that I was.

Throughout the primary I participated in discussions on this and other websites; if you remember me, you will remember some of those hated debates.  It was obvious to me that, although not absolute and total, most Obama supporters were new to politics.  They took Obama's every word as gospel; any hint of criticism was attacked in a hilarious panic.  Obama was the second coming...if you weren't 250% on board, according to those with this cultish mentality, well then, f*ck you!  Hillary Clinton was absolutely trashed for taking such "centrist" positions and "shape-shifting".  "She'll do anything to get elected," so many argued.  They were indignant to her "triangulating" and her "narcissistic" drive for the presidency.  

I, for one, have to say, in light of the last week or so: HA! HA! HA!  It is absolutely a riot, reading, listening, hearing how indignant many of his supporters are because he has "flip flopped," "forgotten who put him where he is."  Absolute rubbish!  He's doing exactly what he should do, to be elected.  HE'S A POLITICIAN!  Just like Hillary Clinton.  Just like John McCain.  Just like every single person taking up space on Capital Hill and in capitals throughout the country.  

FISA.  Brilliant.  Brave.  He and his consultants knew he could take the hit, which would come from his base upon his blatant reversal.  Just as they knew he could get away with reversing himself on campaign finance reform.  Blatant flip-flop.  He's doing what he needs to to be elected and that's exactly what he should be doing.

I just felt the need to bring this up, as I'm sure others have already (I haven't been reading much).  But the way a damn fine public servant like Hillary Clinton was treated is an absolute disgrace and should go down in history as such.  She was attacked, basically, by a wild cyber lynch mob that was doing nothing more than running around and screaming in the darkness.  

I work on campaigns, so perhaps I shouldn't take it for granted that everyone should understand what's going on and appreciate the game for what it is.  But, I'm more than happy witnessing the reality setting in with this group of novices.  Consider yourselves educated on the real world of politics.  Welcome!

There, of course, is a silver lining that shouldn't go unmentioned.  I sincerely mean "Welcome!"  I'm more than delighted to see people newly involved and engaged, it tickles me to death.  But, I hope that more than a few of you will take this opportunity to at least revisit and think about your collective hysteria and the way you trashed a good woman who has devoted her life to public service;  a woman who is responsible for searing the idea of universal healthcare into the modern political mind.  Yeah, she'll flip-flop on something if she needs to.  Yeah, she'll use carefully chosen words.  Yeah, she'll fight tooth and nail to get the opportunity to lead.  I never had any illusions about what a politican looks like; therefore, I'm not surprised to see Obama move to the center, as he makes such fundamental changes of mind.

Think about it!

Update [2008-7-4 18:50:43 by MKyleM]: For what its worth, an attempt to clarify. The point of my post concerned Obama's supporters online - here and on other left-leaning websites. If you didn't see it or weren't around to witness their childish outbrusts, then I really don't care to go into great detail educating you. I will say this, though. The behavior of many here and other places remarkably resembled that of religious fundamentalists faced with opposing opinions or any critical thinking that would require them to even entertain a reality that may not 100% resemble their preconceived notions. I grew up in the south, in a town with 15 churches to every stop light. So, I have a ton of experience dealing with them. When gay bashing or the like was going on, I loved to point out that Jesus saved the life of a prostitute and told the mob that only those without sin should throw stones. I can't tell you all the terrible things I've been called in response to that. I've been charged with devil worship, being brainwashed by Bill Clinton, a faggot, a sinner. I said that to one guy and he just looked at me and said, "Have fun with your eternity in hell." When a Clinton supporter even simply posited an opinion or advocated in anyway for Hillary (not even including an attack on Obama or mentioning him at all), her supporters were roundly ridiculed, dismissed, called Republicans, Trolls, corporatists, murders, all kinds of terrible names. It really was the same sort of knee-jerk, visceral reaction to an opinion of a person that only asks to be heard. Yet, that asks that you consider something outside the Obama-Oh-Wise-One bubble. I've always considered such reactions from religious nuts to be a sad sign that their faith, which they proudly tell any and everybody about, is really very weak and fragile. I have religious faith, but it is strong; I'm, therefore, not intimidated by the faith and ideas of others. This is how I felt about Clinton, my support for her. I knew she wasn't perfect; I was well aware of her history and the mere fact that she is human. I believed in core principals; I believed she would appoint the right judges and fight tooth and nail for universal healthcare - I never had a doubt that she genuinely wants and cares about that. Perhaps it was the lack of a political education that made Obama supporters react so angrily to opposing views; they really had no way to respond. So, anger is always first resort and they denounced us as against everything decent and good. And the thing is, with a handful of exceptions, Clinton supporters really didn't argue that Obama was a bad person and that his supporters were bad people. Again, I'm talking about people here, at DailyKos, and at TPM. Those are the people I'm talking about. Every Obama volunteer or supporter I met in the real world was nothing short of respectful of my support for my candidate. It was online that things were disgraceful. There are many people that should feel down-right embarrassed about their behavior. The disregard for reality in their demonizing Mrs. Clinton, in spite of all that she has done for this country, is one disgrace. Perhaps a bigger disgrace is the way this vocal minority treated others here.