A Moderate Republican

In December this is how Obama described his policies in an interview on Univision, "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." Bruce Bartlett picked up on that comment to cement his point that the Democrats of the 21st century are quite different, in fact more conservative, than the Democrats of the 20th century. Clinton began the move to the right.  The decline of the unions accelerated it. 

Bartlett's thesis is a good explanation of why Obama has been such a disappointment to we liberals, who believed Obama's message that he would be an instrument of badly-needed change.