Obama's Liberal Bonafides

As a follow-up to my last post on Obama's position in the political spectrum, I'd like to highlight this post at Washington Monthly, which covers the real reason we elected Obama.  It's not about being the Prime Minister of Congress and pushing hardcore legislation through.  It's about running the government. 

Here's a porton of a NY Times article mentioned in that post:

In a burst of rule-making, federal agencies have toughened or proposed new standards to protect Americans from tainted eggs, safeguard construction workers from crane accidents, prevent injuries from baby walkers and even protect polar bears from extinction.

Over the last year, the Obama administration has pressed forward on hundreds of new mandates, while also stepping up enforcement of rules by increasing the ranks of inspectors and imposing higher fines for violations. [...]

And of course, this is the stuff progressives don't care much about.  They want political battles.  They want to see Republicans eating dirt and sucking eggs.  What they don't care as much about is quiet enforcement of existing regulations which make us safer. 

That's not to say that they don't want this sort of thing.  It's just that...it doesn't count.  Because you don't get to shove it into anyone's face.  You don't see the evil-doers getting punished.  It's not enough that a tree in the woods fell on Big Business if a liberal wasn't there to watch.

And yet, this is Obama's job.  He's the head of the Executive Branch.  His job is to run the government, not create laws and strong-arm his party into obedience.  And anyone who denounces excessive presidential over-reach should be ashamed that they want Obama to run Congress.  Yes, he's giving us decent legislation that Congress wouldn't give us otherwise, but that's just the icing on the cake.  His real job is to enforce the legislation we already have, and he's doing a great job of it.