Presidential Politics

I am dismayed by the way, thus far, the nomination process for our political candidates for the office of President of the United States has been going.

I have watched as those candidates who I wished could run from the center from their respective parties ran towards the extremes of their respective parties.

An example? John McCain ran away from what "we" liked and ran towards the extreme of his party. Not only did he not energize the conservative base of the Republican Party towards his candidacy, he alienated those who supported him by doing so.

How about Hillary? Seems that she has to run extreme left in order to defeat the threat imposed by the Obama run. By the time she ends up winning the nomination from the Democratic Party, she will have run so far left she might no longer be acceptable to the "we" members of the center. With all of Hillary's coat-tails, if she wants to attempt to run as a centrist in the general election, she needs to run as such in the nomination process. Perhaps she has already swung so far left that she will no longer appeal to many moderates. Her only hope is that the Republicans nominate someone so far to the right that a vote for her would be the lesser of two evils.

Is it too much to expect a candidate to just run on "here are my opinions, judge me as you will"? And then expect the candidate to not adjust their opinions according to what their opinions need to be to be elected? I guess I am asking for too much. For some reason the lure of the power of the Presidency entices the candidates to adjust their sails to however the prevailing winds blow.