Exactly. He's operating inside the small space that was available to Carter (who deregulated Communications and Transportation) and Clinton (who deregulated finance) - that is, he's on the Right despite any desire he might have to move Left. Just like postwar conservatives were trapped inside a consensus for Big Government, the post-Reagan dems are trapped inside the neoliberal model of free trade/deregulation/privatization, which model gained momentum in the 70s and blossomed with Reagan. This is why ObamaCare leaves the private insurance market in place. A real Democrat would have broken up the unnecessary monopolists/parasites who sit between patient and doctor/hospital. Even fucking Adam Smith would have protested the non-competitive, anti-trust rentier class that dominates most large domestic sectors. A Democrat would have broken up the cable/internet providers which have divided much of the country into fixed no-compete zones (the result of which is a virtual monopoly whereby each provider can raise rates and decrease services without fear of being disciplined by competition). The post McGovern Left has shown no desire to disrupt the Reagan model, which put business in charge of government because, according to Reagan, they know best. Welcome to K Street and the Lobbying Industrial Complex.
And let's not overlook Obama's re-nomination of Bernanke, who is a Friedmanite. If Obama was anywhere near the left he would not have put an anti-Left guy in charge of the Fed.
What separates Obama is the four percentage points on the taxes of the upper-bracket. And he's also making moderate reforms to health care but his plan is based on the proposal put fourth by Bob Dole (which was created by a rightwing think tank to oppose HillaryCare). He also favors slightly more oversight of Wall Street, but he's much closer to Bush than anyone on the Left. FDR had the courage to stand up to the rentier class that had destroyed domestic markets. Obama mostly works for that class, like every other politician.
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