It’s not unusual for presidential candidates to move closer to the center for the general election than they were for the primary, hoping to pick up votes of moderate or undecided voters. But Barack Obama’s whole campaign was about how he was a different type of politician – going against the Washington norms and bringing honesty and ingenuity to the nation’s capital.

Is Obama reverting back to standard Washington ways or does this imply that he has reached a form of post-partisan politics? Some feel that shifting views is necessary in order to be elected, which is the campaign’s primary goal. Others view it as a way to show adaptability—a means of proving that the candidate is not stubborn and stuck in his ways.

Will Obama’s “zigzag to the center,” as Bob Herbert of the New York Times referred to it, be able to pick up enough moderates to make up for the voters he turns off by changing his ways?

Will John McCain start sliding toward the middle like his opponent? Or is it likely that his views will become more conservative to appeal to the right?