Caught in the middle.Why obama's centrist shift is turning off his truest believers

The problem with a prople-powered movement is that eventually the people want a say.John Rosinski,an engineer in Orlando,Fla,always believed in the you-centered philoosphy of Barack Obama's campaign.So he and more than 22000 other supporters who baned together on Obama's webiste were furious when the illinois Sensator,despite their petition,voted July 9 for a bill that would allow the Bush administration to continue its program of wiretapping withour warrants,a measure Obama once swore he would filibuster.To Rosinski,that's apostasy.I really don't know right now if I'll vote for him,Rosinski says.He is just continue politics as usual,becoming like any other politician.




In his transition from upstart candidate to presumptive nomiee,Obama has,to some of his once ardent fans,come to look dangerously like the ingratiating Washington politician he so often rails against.Worried about his patriotism?He now wears a flag pin daily.Uneasy about his church?He felt it,too liberal?Just look at his recet policy statement endorsing gun rights,calling for trade talks and supporting restrictions on late-term aboration.





Such tactical shifts to the center are a general-election ritual for Democratic presidential candidates.a pre-emptive defense against the Republican attack machine.But Obama isn't like other candidates.In his 2006 best seller,The audacity of Hope,Obama wrote of himself,I serve as a black screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views.So as his pragmatic side fills that screen,those loyal foot soldiers who got used to seeing their own reflections are beginning to cry betrayal.The people in Obama's movement feel they have an open line directly to him,and these days many want their objections heeded.It's wake up call on how much wiggle room he has.





The rumbling of liberal discontent began last month,after Obama came out in favor of the superme court's decision striking down Washington's handgun ban.That was followed by a press conference in which he appeared to backtrack on his commitment to a speedy withdrwal form Iraq and by speech to an Ohio ministry in which he pledged to expand George W.Bush's faith-based initative program.In an interview with fortune,he said his critique of free trade during the primaries was overheated and amplified.By the time Obama voted for the wiretapping bill.Rosinski and his fellow rebels had become the largest group on the senator's website.Being accused of flip-flopping by the Republicans us routine,infuriating the faithful is risky business.Obama denies that sacrificing principle to appeal to moderates.Don't assume that if I don't agree with you or something that it must be because I'm doing that politically,he told a aduience in Powder Spring.I may just disagree with you.It's ture that some of Obama's shifts have been more about a change in emphasis than in policy.