Yuval, of all the very interesting things in your post, the most interesting is Obama’s inadvertent admission that the notion of him “trying to look centrist” is fraudulent and something to be avoided.
He’s not a centrist. There’s nothing in his history that is centrist. In his core (and I am convinced he has a core that he has set about camouflaging for general election purposes) he thinks being a centrist is a bad thing.
I’ve never thought Obama was as compelling a speaker, even with a script, as the cloying media narrative has it. But he should be listened to closely when he speaks off the cuff. That’s the real Obama.