Jonathan Alter: Obama Going Far Left Will Help Find The Center, Or Something

Perhaps there are no editors at Bloomberg…

Goal-post shifting is back in style. Behind the soaring rhetoric of the inaugural address and his announcement of a bold immigration plan, the president is engaged in a carefully calibrated effort to move the debate away from the right side of the field.

In their interactions over the last two years, a chastened Obama started in the center and the Republicans started on the right, and the never-found compromise lay on the center-right.

Since winning re-election, Obama is starting on the center- left and the Republicans are moving toward the center-right. With any luck, they will find compromise in the center. The real center.

Again, here’s more of the Obama First Term Centrist fairy tale. Of course, Obama never once “started in the center”, he started somewhere near the lunatic fringe. He’s now moving so far we’re going to need one of Newt’s Moon bases to accommodate him.