While neither liberals nor conservatives are eager to admit it, they can no longer deny it: Americans are living through George W. Bush’s third term. Obama loves to criticize the 43rd president, almost as much as he loves to emulate him. In the war on terror, aspects of foreign policy, education reform, immigration, corporate bailouts and a host of other issues with the exception of health care reform, Obama has taken up the sorts of positions that conservatives usually champion.

And the left has noticed, which is why the president now and then gets blowback from parts of the same liberal coalition that helped elect him. They must wonder what happened to the person they helped put in office, and many of these disillusioned liberals now talk about voting for Obama as the “lesser of two evils.”