Obama: Relax, I'm Not Running to the Center

Calling himself "no doubt progressive," Barack Obama today addressed accusations he has shifted to the center, the New York Times reports. “The people who say this apparently haven’t been listening to me,” he said, going on to cite his support for universal health care and federal economic controls. “I believe in personal responsibility," he added. "I also believe in faith.”

Singling out “my friends on the left” and the media for questioning him, Obama said, "One of the things you find as you go through this campaign, everyone becomes so cynical about politics." That leads to an "assumption that you must be doing everything for political reasons,” but sometimes dissatisfaction “just means we disagree,” he said. (More Barack Obama stories.)