Washington - Barack Obama won the presidency just last month, and some supporters think he's already forgotten why.
In the view of his critics on the left, Obama - once rated the most liberal member of the Senate - is reinventing himself as a pragmatic moderate as he prepares to take office and making foolish decisions in an effort to broaden his appeal.
These critics reacted sharply when he selected a gay-marriage opponent, the Rev. Rick Warren of Saddleback Church, to give the invocation at the inauguration. One of the milder rebukes came from Kathryn Kolbert, president of the liberal group People for the American Way, who expressed "grave disappointment" over the president-elect's choice.
The angry buzz from liberals grew so loud that Obama's deputy national campaign manager was compelled to scold left-wing Democrats for drawing critical conclusions about Obama's appointees, among them, a surprising number of Clinton administration veterans.
"After all, he was elected to be the president of all the people - not just those on the left," Steve Hildebrand wrote on Huffington Post, a popular liberal Web site.
As if to confirm liberals' worst fears, conservative evangelist Pat Robertson recently said he sees "the makings of a great president" in Obama. He told CNN that he's "remarkably pleased with Obama" and praised his middle-of-the road Cabinet picks, which include President George W. Bush's defense secretary, Robert M. Gates.
But not all liberals think the dust-ups over Warren and Robertson represent serious problems for Obama. And some say the way he's developing his approach to the economic crisis is far more telling in terms of his coming presidency.
One person who is unusually well-positioned to provide a reality check on the question of whether Obama has abandoned his liberal leanings is Robert Greenstein of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal advocacy group.
Unknown outside Washington's power circles, the former Carter administration official is regarded as perhaps the most influential lobbyist in the nation on behalf of poor and moderate-income Americans. His group's clout has been compared to that of AARP for older Americans and organized labor on behalf of workers.
Beside his reputation, Greenstein brings two other qualifications to the debate: personal experience as a member of Bill Clinton's transition team after the 1992 election, and close ties to key Obama White House aides, including budget director Peter Orszag and economic adviser Jason Furman.
