What's Left is Right, What's Right is Right
Greg Sargent sorting out the bodies , tries to explain why Obama's agenda wasn't the Leftist champion of Leftonia: Maybe it's true that "the left's agenda" has not won the support of a majority of Americans, but that claim has nothing to do with the agenda Obama actually pursued during his first two years. This is a matter of simple factual reality. Obama and Dems passed a smaller stimulus than many on the left wanted. Obama and Dems jettisoned from health reform the core provision liberals sought, and embraced solutions once championed by Republicans. Wall Street reform was not as ambitious as the left had hoped. The Obama administration has escalated in Afghanistan and justified it with rhetoric that Republicans wholly approve of. Obama has embraced many Bush policies on civil liberties and terrorism that the left despises. Obama, in other words, embraced a mix of liberal and Republican solutions to the crises he inherited. While his agenda was undeniably th...