I say again: "Note that you find a lot of Democrats pretending to be more conservative every election season, but you don't see a lot of conservatives pretending to be more leftist."

Obama spent all of the 2008 election pretending to be more moderate than he was. Too many Americans, including the media, practically lobotomized themselves ignoring his past, his background, his voting record, and his friends and coworkers.

As far as Clinton goes, look at this Wiki piece on "triangulation:"

^The term was first used by President of the United States Bill Clinton's chief political advisor Dick Morris as a way to describe his strategy for getting Clinton reelected in the 1996 presidential election. It is often referred to as "Clintonian triangulation". Morris advocated a set of policies that were different from the traditional policies of the Democratic Party. These policies included deregulation and balanced budgets. One of the most widely cited capstones of Clinton's triangulation strategy was when, in his 1996 State of the Union Address, Clinton declared that the "era of big government is over."^

So, which of those underlined positions reflect a leftward slide? And what are the implied "traditional positions" of the Democratic Party?

Clinton, like Obama, knew - at least during an election - where the centerline in America really is.