Can Obama swing to centre?

Friday, May 30

Senator Barack Obama secured a majority of the 'pledged' delegates to the Democratic national convention, and stands on the verge of claiming the party's presidential nomination.

Although he has been a nationally prominent figure for less than four years, formidable rhetorical and political skills have facilitated his rapid rise.

His upbringing in multiracial Hawaii and Indonesia made his own background relatively unremarkable -- which would not have been the case 40 years ago on the US mainland. It meant that he had to 'discover' his identity as an African-American, enabling him to empathise with the perspectives of both whites and blacks and learn to be a 'bridge-builder'.

Obama is often characterised as a left-wing US 'Liberal'. Yet his voting record in Illinois and in his first two years in the US Senate, before he shifted leftward ahead of the primaries, suggest that his views are largely in line with those of moderate 'New Democrats'.

Nonetheless, his leftward tack during the extended primary season, coupled with the flap over his former pastor, will hamper his ideological pivot towards the centre against Senator John McCain. The difficulty of this inevitable swing to the centre suggest that November's election will be a close one.