A former Democratic congressman and a close ally of President Barack Obama defected to the GOP this week. The move was celebrated by the Republicans. They said that it showed that the president has led the country on a march towards the left. Republicans

Former Alabama congressman Artur Davis announced that he switched parties and will be voting for Mitt Romney in November. He was once a rising star in the Democratic Party and was one of those who helped President Obama be nominated for presidency in 2008.

Davis is a centrist who was against the health care bill that President Obama pushed. He said that he may run for office as a Republican in Virginia. The Republicans saw this defection as a confirmation of their claim that the president failed to improve the economy or deliver on his promises of national unity. These are the issues that Davis’ deemed important.

The Republicans in Virginia saw the black Harvard graduate as someone who can sway Democratic voters in northern Virginia. According to Virginia Governor Robert McDonnell of Virginia, Davis’ analysis of the problems affecting the nation is spot-on and his credentials are flawless.

Davis’ fallout with the Democratic Party has been building up for years. But Democrats dismissed his defection as a political strategy of someone with wounded ambitions. He left Congress to run as governor of Alabama two years ago but he failed to get his party’s nomination for the position.

Davis’ vocal support of Obama in the past as well as his criticisms of the Democratic Party gives the GOP ammunition to attack the president during the presidential campaign. Davis was the first congressman outside of Obama’s home state of Illinois to endorse him in 2007.

Davis believes that there’s little tolerance in Democratic politics for center-right views such as his own. His move came as the ranks of moderate Blue Dog Democrats in Congress have been decreasing due to member retirements and electoral defeats at the hands of candidates on both the right and left.