Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) is shifting to the center after months of battling Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) for the hearts of the Democratic Party’s liberal base.

His recent strategy of political triangulation has already sparked a fight with  MoveOn.org, a powerful liberal advocacy group.

MoveOn.org officials have come close to accusing Obama of breaking a promise he made last year to fight a bill that would grant legal immunity to telecommunications firms that shared customer information.

More evidence of Obama’s ideological trajectory is a television advertisement emphasizing patriotism, personal accountability and tax cuts in Republican strongholds such as Alaska and Montana.

Obama’s campaign is fighting Republican efforts to portray him as an out-of-touch liberal.

Democratic and Republican strategists say that Obama’s focus on liberal policies during the long Democratic primary and his Senate voting record make him vulnerable to that label.

Tad Devine, a Democratic strategist who served as a senior adviser to 2004 Democratic nominee Sen. John Kerry (Mass.), said Clinton, who was once considered an overwhelming favorite to win the party’s nomination, began moving to the center well before the Democratic primary.

“After Obama went through that primary process with her, he needs to get to the middle,” said Devine.
Devine said that by discussing welfare reform and tax cuts in his new ad, Obama is making “an obvious attempt to reach out to moderate swing voters, independents and disaffected Republicans.”

“He’s signaling to them that he’d like a hearing from them.”

Obama spokesman Reid Cherlin said, “I don’t think this represents a shift. The case that Obama has always made for himself is his ability to talk to people regardless of labels. He has spent this campaign talking about the core values that define us as Americans.”

The Illinois senator began shifting rightward immediately after the last Democratic primary contests.

The week he clinched the nomination, he proposed at a conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee sanctions against Iran that were significantly tougher than what he had suggested before.

Analysts interpreted Obama’s declaration to do “everything” — “and I mean everything” to stop Iran from obtaining a nuclear a weapon as a threat of military action.

Obama emphasized the importance of personal responsibility, accountability and family values days later at a Father’s Day speech in Chicago, themes that Republicans have used in recent elections.

“Of all the rocks upon which we build our lives, we are reminded today that family is the most important,” said Obama.

He declared that too many fathers “have abandoned their responsibilities, acting like boys instead of men. And the foundations of our community are weaker because of it.”

Cherlin said Obama gave a similar Father’s Day speech in 2005.

Obama again sounded traditional Republican themes in a television advertising campaign that began running last week in red states such as Indiana, North Carolina and North Dakota.

“America is a country of strong families and strong values,” Obama says, looking into the camera. “I was raised by a single mom and my grandparents, we didn’t have much money but they taught me values straight from the Kansas heartland where they grew up: accountability and self-reliance, love of country, working hard without making excuses.”

During the primary battle with Clinton, Obama said he was open to lifting the Social Security payroll tax, which is capped at $102,000. When he had the nomination all but wrapped up, Obama was more specific, ruling out any tax increase for people making less than $250,000 a year.

Chris Lehane, a Democratic strategist who served on former Vice President Al Gore’s (D) 2000 presidential campaign, said Obama is trying to appeal to independents and middle-class Republicans who are wary about the Democratic Party’s position on social issues.

“He’s making pretty clear that he’s going to take this campaign directly to those voters who may be inclined to vote for Democrats because of the macro trends but historically may have had issues about voting for Democrats,” said Lehane, who explained Obama is competing for working-class voters who supported former President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s.

“Reagan Democrats who have become independents or registered Republicans may have concerns about Democrats on patriotism and personal responsibility,” he said.

Lehane said that President Bush won Ohio, a pivotal swing state, in 2004 by using patriotism as a wedge issue against Democrats.

Obama is trying to ensure that does not happen again by emphasizing his patriotism in his new ad titled: “Country I Love.”

Cherlin said that many observers considered Obama’s 2004 Democratic convention speech as patriotic.

But Obama’s recent moves have not sat well with the left. His announcement that he would vote for a compromise struck between Democratic leaders and Bush on intelligence surveillance legislation has put him at odds with MoveOn.org, which endorsed him in the Democratic primary.

Though Obama has said he would work to remove a provision granting telecommunications companies immunity for sharing sensitive information with the intelligence agencies, liberal critics remain unsatisfied.

“Last year, after phone calls from MoveOn members and others, Obama went so far as to vow to support a filibuster of any bill that includes retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies.

We need him to honor that promise.” MoveOn.org wrote in an e-mail alert to members Saturday.

“We’re encouraging him to fight the fight he said he would on immunity for breaking the law,” said Eli Pariser, executive director of MoveOn.org.