I notice an uptick in the unrestrained criticism from the left of President Obama. He’s smugly and simply dismissed as an unreconstructed “neoliberal” and nothing more. This is wrong analytically, tactically stupid, and reveals some racial insensitivity.

Nowhere in such critiques do we find any examination of the balance of political forces at that time nor a critical look at the role of the left and progressive communities. Why do either when it’s so much easier to heap blame on Obama? But it’s very ease should give us pause.