How Liberal Is President Obama?

Nate Silver with some good non-partisan analysis of the question. [How Liberal Is President Obama?]

It is almost certainly an exaggeration, therefore, to conclude that Mr. Obama’s positions are similar to those of a Republican of the 1990s. His DW-NOMINATE scores are considerably to the left of even the most liberal Republicans of the 1990s — and slightly to the left of most 1990s Democrats.

At the same time, Mr. Klein is right that the Republican platform has shifted significantly toward the right. Some of the positions they have adopted recently — like the actions against public unions they have taken in Wisconsin, Ohio and other states, and the budget adopted by the Republican House — would have been radical by the standards of a Republican like Bob Dole.

tnb