Why do some on the Left keep saying that Pres. Obama is "center-right"?

[Cal Carpenter]

55. In an objective sense, he is center-right

Outside the US, economic stances are what primarily define left vs right in political theory and policy. The Dem party, including Obama, is center-right in those terms.

The only way Dems are really 'left' is in a relative sense to Repubs. We may do more to protect existing social programs but there is little effort to confront the inherent problems in capitalism and make permanent lasting changes. For example, the New Deal did wonders for many people for many years, but it didn't stop the horrors of capitalism (in fact some argue that it basically saved capitalism given the mood of the world's working class at the time) and most of it has been chipped away over many decades under both Dem and Repub control. Even the 'social democracies' of western and northern Europe are center-left, in the sense that they protect their own people, but they aren't capital-L leftists in an objective way because they aren't challenging the global economic system on a bigger level.

US politics don't really give anyone a chance to be a leftist and get anywhere, maybe a token or two in the legislature but no one who truly challenges the center-right position can ever get very far, and if they do, they can't get anything done.

IMO, it isn't about Obama per se, it is about the whole system from the election process (really? Multiple billions of dollars?) to the legislation (eg written by corporate lobbyists to advance their own interests at the expense of the people). Obama can't be expected to fix this, and the legislature never will. For any real leftist movement to take root here, it must necessarily be independent of the 2 major parties and, at this time, the ballot box is not the place for fundamental change to occur.