After Divisive Primary, Shifting to the Center

By JOHN HARWOOD, NYT

WASHINGTON — Presidential nominees have several options for repositioning after ideologically charged primary campaigns: strategic silence, new proposals, a different tone on the brighter general election stage.

And sometimes they can do nothing and watch their rivals do the shifting.

The long-term political implications of President Obama’s historic announcement that he supports same-sex marriage remain unclear and subject to cultural, legal and generational crosscurrents. The response from many Republicans, including Mitt Romney, was relatively muted.

But by adopting a clear position on a divisive social issue, Mr. Obama gave hope to some conservatives that the resulting contrast would make Mr. Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts, “look more centrist,” as Ken Khachigian, a Republican strategist in California, put it.

That is a priority after a primary battle that tugged Mr. Romney, now the presumptive Republican nominee, toward the right. His ability to resist the Obama campaign’s attempts to brand him as “extreme” could determine the outcome in November.

(More here.)