Much has been said about Obama's so called move to the middle, but Rasmussen shows that less Americans are viewing Obama as liberal.
During the Primary campaign season, Obama was viewed as politically liberal by an ever-increasing number of voters that grew to 67% by early June. However, since clinching the nomination, he has reversed that trend and is now seen as liberal by only 56%.
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Recently Obama has tried to appeal to voters in the middle by portraying himself as a moderate. Obama's backing of the horrendous, though bipartisan, FISA bill was supposed to attract moderates. Policy proposals such as faith based initiatives have also been seen as an attempt to reach out to Evangelicals and swing voters. New data shows that this approach seems to be working.
The Democratic candidate is viewed as a political moderate by 27%, up from 22% three weeks earlier, while McCain is seen as a moderate by 23%, down from 26% in the survey at the beginning of June.
This is great news because it will be harder for the Republicans to paint Obama as a scary lib-ur-al who will raise your taxes. In fact, the poll also shows that the number of voters who view Obama as very liberal is down fourteen points from 36% to 22%. The number of Americans who see McCain as a moderate is now smaller than the number that see Obama as such. This is proof that McCain's independent, maverick image has started to tarnish.
McCain similarly has been seen as politically conservative by more and more voters, also hitting 67% a month ago, but he is still viewed that way by 66%. While19% saw him as Very Conservative in early June, that figure now has risen to 28%.
Rasmussen shows that the change in perception among McCain is especially evident among women. This may be a sign that they have found out about his atrocious record on women's rights.
While we may be disappointed with some of Obama's moves, the fact is that the dKos community, myself included, is very liberal and that we could not afford to have 36% of voters see Obama as very liberal when only 7% of voters identify themselves as such.