Cenk is over at Daily Kos calling for a vote against Obama (updated)

[thesquanderer]

239. In the middle on this

re:

"Repeat: Anyone who wants to consider the first President to finally enact health care reform...the President who ended the Iraq war...who reregulated the financial industry..."

I do think Obama has done a lot of good things (including some of the ones you mentioned that I did not include in that quote), but I would not hold out those items quoted above as progressive accomplishments.

HCR, while anathema to today's right wing loons, is a moderate Republican plan, as evidenced by its similarities to Romney's MA plan and to some of what Dole proposed before that (and what Gingrich liked). I did not expect a truly progressive transition to single payer, but we didn't get anything remotely close, not even the "public option" or ability to "buy into" medicare at a younger age.

The Iraq war was ended exactly according to the pre-established George W. Bush timetable... and, according to some reports, only because Obama was unsuccessful in trying to find a way to extend it... but either way, no better than what W had already scheduled.

And there have been numerous reports about how the financial "reregulation" is woefully inadequate, and has not even begun to address the "too big to fail" problem.

So no, I do not count those among his "progressive successes." In addition, his record on executive power, government transparency, and civil liberties is, for the most part, no better than the terrible positions of GWB.

I would not call him a Republican, but on balance, I would say he is a moderate-to-right-leaning Democrat, not a progressive one.