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In retrospect, it's bizarre that many conservatives slammed Obama as a "socialist" when in reality his policies were quite centrist; the ACA was a Republican idea after all. In interviews Obama has compared himself to a moderate Republican and as President he went out of his way to accommodate conservatives on the deficit, foreign policy, and even entitlements by proposing to raise the retirement age as a part of his Grand Bargain. Some of this was driven by a desire to compromise with Congressional hardliners, but at the same time I do think that Obama is genuinely not near as liberal as many thought at the time. What would it take to push Obama along the political path of a moderate Republican, as opposed to a fairly moderate Democrat?