Obama's Move to the Center Is Just a Ploy

President Obama's so-called shift to the center is all just for show, writes Charles Krauthammer. "Now, as always, his heart lies left." Obama still plans to complete his "socialist-democratic transformation," but first he's got to get around the Republican House. Not a big problem: What he and the Democrats can't accomplish through legislation, they'll do through "administrative fiat," he writes in the Washington Post.

Witness the recent flurry on everything from end-of-life counseling (i.e. death panels), anti-carbon regulations, and the designation of "wild lands"—all of which are "defiantly liberal regulatory moves." Those were accomplished quietly, through the president's regulatory powers. When it comes to legislation, look for Obama to make "ostentatious displays" of bipartisanship over the next two years, just enough to get him re-elected. Then he can plow ahead with his liberal agenda, "freed from the need for pretense."
(More President Obama stories.)