"On Obama and the elections"

Kerry Eleveld (The Advocate):

During his first two years in office, President Obama governed from the middle, but he let his policies be demonized by the right as hopelessly liberal — leaving progressives hopelessly unsatisfied.
(SNIP)
In short, Obama didn’t govern as a progressive but was painted as one. Therefore, progressives didn’t get what they voted for and yet the rest of the country was led to believe the “progressive” agenda had pushed us down a dark path to nowhere.

Here’s lesson 1: If you’re going to let yourself be characterized as a liberal, you damn well better be one; otherwise the base that elected you won’t turn up at the polls to get your back once you’ve given a bad name to everything they believed in but never actually got. MORE...

H/t to John Aravosis.