Having won the Democratic nomination by pandering to the left wing base of the party, Obama had a choice.

He could play the role of George McGovern and keep faith with his liberal principles, being cheered on by the 25% of the public who identify with his far left personae while getting slaughtered in the general election by the more centrist McCain.

Or, he could throw his lefty bretheren off the bus and do an about face on every major issue that the liberals fell in love with him for.

Guess which route the Democrat has chosen?

FrontPage.com's Jacob Laskin has an excellent piece out today where he highlights with great clarity how Obama has abandoned his far left base, leaving them sputtering with indignation, while he has moved to the center on every issue of import in American politics. From Iraq to abortion, Obama has sidled up to the middle of the road thus obscuring or blurring the differences between himself and John McCain.

All Democrats have done this to some degree since the McGovern debacle. But no one has done it coming from as far left as Obama surely is nor has any Democrat so shamelessly and totally abandoned clear cut leftist positions taken in the primary in favor of adopting polar opposite positions close to the middle of the political spectrum.

Luskin points out that Obama's supporters are none to pleased at the shift. He points out that "Not only have establishment media like the New York Times bemoaned the “new and not improved” Obama, but his younger admirers have turned against him." This is especially true among the netroots who have backed his candidacy and given money on the internet in spectacular amounts. Luskin writes "So badly has the faith in Obama been shaken that commenter on Talking Points Memo wondered dejectedly if “perhaps we should get off our high horses and stop believing in Obama as a messiah.”

Luskin thinks that some of Obama's actual positions - Iran for instance - haven't changed that much. It is the rhetoric and emphasis that have undergone massive alterations. In this sense, the candidate has now made the race one of a personality contest between "old and tired" Mcain who will continue Bush's policies and "the agent of change" who will supposedly shake up the status quo.

Whether that's true or not, it is damned effective politics.