Who Says Obama's Policies Are Considered Republican? Anyone With A Brain-- Including President Barack H. Obama

If you've followed this blog with any regularity over the past few years, you've probably noticed an uncomfortable disdain for Barack Obama-- going back to right after he was elected to the Senate and picked Joe Lieberman as his mentor, and continuing right up to the current attempts to work with Boehner to balance the budget on the backs on the elderly and the middle class. The wealthy and powerful have continued to do extraordinarily well under Obama... regular working families, much less so. And, as Dan Rather told a somewhat stunned Rachel Maddow Thursday night (watch the video here), Republicans recognize Obama as someone who "can be rolled for his wallet and his watch."

He was dealt a terrible hand, between the Bush Recession and savage, unrelenting Republican obstructionism, and he handled it with... mediocrity. He doesn't explain his presidency as mediocre. He just admits he's pretty conservative-- and, at a time when the country is in desperate need of a strong, forthright and inspiring progressive. In the past he's identified himself as a Blue Dog, which is bad enough. In a pandering interview with a Miami TV station he bragged that his economic policies are "so mainstream" he'd be considered a moderate Republican in the 1980s.

"The truth of the matter is that my policies are so mainstream that if I had set the same policies that I had back in the 1980s, I would be considered a moderate Republican," he told Noticias Univision 23 in a White House interview.

"I mean, what I believe in is a tax system that is fair," he continued. "I don't think government can solve every problem. I think that we should make sure that we're helping young people go to school. We should make sure that our government is building good roads and bridges and hospitals and airports so that we have a good infrastructure.

"I do believe that it makes sense that everyone in America, as rich as this country is, shouldn't go bankrupt because someone gets sick, so the things I believe in are essentially the same things your viewers believe in," Obama said.

I recognize how tough it is on him. But he asked for the job and we invested ourselves in his success. We expect him to try-- and to try hard, not to give up when the Republicans make ugly noises. In his book, Twilight of the Elites, Chris Hayes remarks how ridiculous it got when Obama tried to repeal the corporate jet tax breaks:

[Glenn] Beck complained of Obama's "sheer unadulterated disgust for the wealthy, the successful, and anyone who's ever tried to do anything with their life," and Limbaugh warned that Obama's "dangerous" idea put "corporate jet owners in the crosshairs again."

It comes with the territory. People like that-- like mad dogs-- sense fear. They would respect him more if he backed down less. I think Elizabeth Warren already knows that. She'll make a much better president someday. This came from her yesterday:

A year ago, I decided to run for the U.S. Senate because I believe down to my toes that we can level the playing field for working families and make investments together that are needed to build a future for our kids and grandkids.

For more than 30 years, working people have been hacked and squeezed and chipped at-- and I'm going to Washington convinced that we can do more to fight back.

That's why I was so excited that I will have the chance to serve on the Senate Banking Committee, the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, and the Special Committee on Aging. Each will give me the opportunity to keep fighting for what we believe in:

• We stand for families. We believe in making investments in education and building a future for our kids.

• We stand for working people. We believe in collective bargaining and the right to unionize.

• We stand for Social Security and Medicare. We believe in dignity and independence for all our seniors.

• We stand for health care. We believe in quality, affordable care for all Americans.

• And we stand for accountability and a level playing field, so that no one steals your purse on Main Street or your pension on Wall Street.

For every single one of you who put on your sneakers and windbreakers to go knock on doors, who picked up the phone to make calls, who donated (and keep contributing) to our campaign-- thank you from the bottom of my heart. I know that I have thanked you before, but I just can't thank you enough.

When I go to the United States Senate in just a few weeks, each and every day I will remember the hard work you did to put me there. I'm deeply grateful, I'm honored by the trust you have placed in me, and I promise you that I'll do my best.

Time for this kind of leadership so the country can move forward... for real, not just in a slogan.