Obama should exaggerate his moves to the right, not hide them.

Obama has made a habit of making subtle shifts to the right and playing them down. That is fine during the primary. But now he needs to play them up big time. By playing up his early shifts (offshore drilling and telecom amnesty) he will win independents and, more importantly, be in a position to make fewer shifts.

Don't hide shifts to the right; announce them in a major press conferences. Exaggerate them; don't understate them. Make the compromise seem more generous to the other side than it is, not less. Say the exact phrase "I am shifting right" on this.

If the benefit of this is completely obvious to you, read no further. You already understand. Otherwise, here is an example.

Take offshore oil drilling. Obama should have played up big time the fact that he was shifting right in accepting offshore offshore oil drilling increases. He should have shouted it and exaggerated it to make sure everyone knows it is a shift to the right and, by God, that's that. It's a decision he made, and he is standing by it. He should have announced in a major press conference "I am shifting right on this issue. I want to be a president for the whole country..."

Then the independents would swoon. Our knee jerkers (with whom I happen to agree on the issue, by the way) would be spitting mad. They would fume and rail and basically make asses of themselves. That would make the result even better in terms of picking up independents and even the rare "reasoning Republican."

After explicitly "going right" on offshore drilling, Obama would have shed the image of being "too liberal." More importantly, though, he might have been in a position to push back on telecom amnesty. He would have "compromised" on one thing but not the other. He would have been "balanced." Again, he would play up the decision to stay left, not hide it. "I compromised on oil drilling in a nod to the right, but this telecom amnesty is bad for the country as a whole...I can't support it."

Instead, he made both shifts subtly and squeamishly. They cost him instead of paying off, and they left him with a "too-liberal" tag.

brings to mind the phrase...why vote for a Dem who leans right when you can vote for a real rightist??

Obama is doing fine...pushing the 'change' idea. 8 years of the worst administration this country has ever seen has tarnished the Republican Party...just keep on hitting the fact that McCain is a wanna-be Bush and we will win.

...he should make a virtue of a necessity. When he compromises, he should make sure everyone knows it. And he should make all sides think he gave more than he did. Then he should use the one "give" to achieve twenty "gets." What I am talking about is a way to make fewer compromises while seeming to make more.

Obama has been doing a lot better lately in terms of fighting, and I agree with you on "hitting the fact that McCain is a wanna-be Bush." We are going to win, I think.