You are looking at the HTML representation of the XML format.
HTML is good for debugging, but is unsuitable for application use.
Specify the format parameter to change the output format.
To see the non HTML representation of the XML format, set format=xml.
See the complete documentation, or API help for more information. 
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<api>
  <query-continue>
    <alllinks galcontinue="Barry_Goldwater|932" />
  </query-continue>
  <query>
    <pages>
      <page pageid="323" ns="0" title="Conservative" />
      <page pageid="530" ns="0" title="2013 Weekly columns at Pseagles.com" />
      <page pageid="531" ns="0" title="2012 Weekly columns at Pseagles.com" />
      <page pageid="632" ns="0" title="2011 Weekly columns at Pseagles.com" />
      <page pageid="872" ns="0" title="John Courson" />
      <page pageid="997" ns="2" title="User:Conservative/Sports, exercise and diet" />
    </pages>
  </query>
</api>