President Obama

Is Obama the Least Liberal Dem President?

Not a chance in hell. I have serious problems with this study by Keith Poole and taken at face value by Paul Krugman indicating that President Obama is the least liberal Democratic president in nearly a century.

For the sake of proving my point, let's take a quick look at the last two Democratic administrations. According to the study (and don't laugh too hard) President Clinton is more liberal than President Obama.

Nonsense.

Clinton passed DADT. President Obama repealed it.

Clinton signed DOMA. President Obama stopped defending it in court and would sign a repeal.

Clinton flew 153,000 sorties into Iraq, bombed Iraq in '98, attacked Afghanistan, Somalia and Bosnia. President Obama ended the Iraq War despite military pressure to stick around, and he's in the process of wrapping up in Afghanistan.

Clinton repealed Glass-Steagall by signing the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act which established all of the financial institutions that crashed the economy. President Obama repaired the damage in part by passing an unprecedented $800 billion stimulus package with billions in "big government" spending.

On that note, Clinton declared "the era of big government is over" and continued to foster small government, deregulatory Reaganomics. President Obama is ending Reaganomics and defending the role of government.

Clinton began the overseas outsourcing boom in part by signing NAFTA. President Obama is ending tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas.

Should I go on?

Clinton signed welfare reform into law. President Obama expanded Medicaid and SCHIP. Clinton failed to pass healthcare reform. President Obama passed it.

Etc, etc, etc.

Don't believe that study for a second. Sadly, many otherwise smart progressives will use this as fuel to justify their nearsighted view of the Obama administration's accomplishments.