Hal, the Republican Party is actively working to destroy things Obama did on health care, the environment, women's rights, immigration.etc. They are actively engaging in voter suppression. I think you and others might want to pay attention to the GOP assaults on programs the guy who sold out to Wall Street put in place.

I would just point out a cavaet: that people seem to forget when they focus on analyzing the 2016 race alone that Obama won the presidency twice doing the cosmopolitan thing as opposed to the populist thing.

And I would add that I myself, as an Independent, would tend to believe this: A spokesman said he gives speeches “true to his values.”  So if I heard other Democratic leaders who did not consider him an enemy of their values when he was president decry him for the same thing now, I would question their sincerity. I.E., if my own Senator Chuck Schumer starting talking anti-Wall-Street tomorrow, I would tend not to believe him and lose respect for him for that reason.

What I don't get is why "Democratic leaders" should be "outraged" at Obama clearly being what he has always been: a strong believer in capitalism. He strongly reiterated his beliefs in an essay in the Economist Oct. 16: "The Way Ahead."

...."the world is more prosperous than ever before and yet our societies are marked by uncertainty and unease"...."it is important to remember that capitalism has been the greatest driver of prosperity and opportunity the world has ever seen."..... "While some communities have suffered from foreign competition," he said. "Trade has helped our economy much more than it has hurt."...."Wherever I go these days, at home or abroad, people ask me the same question: what is happening in the American political system?" he said. He described the view of a polarized American public, where both conservatives and liberals are veering toward more extreme views. "Why have some on the far left and even more on the far right embraced a crude populism that promises a return to a past that is not possible to restore -- and that, for most Americans, never existed at all?"

"Some of the discontent is rooted in legitimate concern," the president said, pointing to "declining productivity growth and rising inequality" that he said has squeezed lower and middle income families by slowing income growth.

But the president said that much of the anxiety was "driven by fears that are not fundamentally economic," saying that "anti-immigrant, anti-Mexican, anti-Muslim and anti-refugee sentiment" harkened back to "eras in which Americans were told they could restore past glory if they just got some group or idea that was threatening America under control."

Though the president did not mention candidates Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton by name in the article, he said that "much of it [is] fanned by politicians who would actually make the problem worse rather than better."....

He never tried to fool the public about the fact that this is what he believed. And he got elected and re-elected. If anyone believed different, they were juding wrongly by some other criteria, like presuming he would be more socialistic because of the color of his skin or his community organizing jobs in his Chicago years, or something like that.

The point now should be: he and others like him like the Clintons chose to be very active members of the Democratic party. They are the faction that believes in capitalism. When those from that faction run for office, these beliefs attract votes from certain Independents and swings and also turn off votes from other Independents and swings who have more populist beliefs. Those active in the Democratic party with more socialist beliefs can attract votes from independents and swings who have more populist beliefs and turn off votes from those who have more capitalist beliefs.

It is nothing to be outraged about! If the politician is honest about it and doesn't dishonestly try to pander with something he/she doesn't believe. Rather, it is something to debate.

I reiterate that I think what should outrage people is when a politician is dishonest about what he or she believes in order to get votes. People should know and understand what they are voting for. We have the worst example of a con artist in the presidency right now who doesn't seem to believe in anything and has virtually done the historical ultimate in spinning to get popularity. It makes it more clear that this is what we shouldn't want, this is what should outrage: spinning to suggest something that the person is not in order to get votes.