President Obama and the Unhappy (impossible to satisfy?) Left. From Jonathan Cohn, a senior editor at The New Republic via NPR:
Not surprisingly, conservatives are unhappy with President Obama. Somewhat surprisingly, liberals are too — or, at least, a lot of liberal commentators.
On July 4, Robert Kuttner spoke for many of them when he wrote, on the Huffington Post, that “we voted our hopes that events could compel Obama to govern as a progressive. We are still waiting.” Bob was primarily upset about Obama’s failure to push through a new stimulus package. But he also criticized Obama over health care (for not getting passionate about it until the last minute) and the Gulf oil disaster (for not taking a harder line on British Petroleum).
Bob is my old boss and mentor, not to mention a good friend. I share his frustrations over the policies that have (and haven’t) come out of Washington lately. But to suggest that Obama hasn’t governed as a progressive seems pretty wrong to me.
