I call Obama a socialist because he's more like a socialist than any other descriptor I can come up with. He's certainly pretty fcking far from a liberal, and he's too socially conservative to be a progressive, yet too pro-left-wing and statist on economics to be a centrist.
I don't even use the term with derision - though I think European socialists are much better at socialism than Obama is.
That's a good point... what would you call BO, without calling him a Socialist? A quasi-Socialist?
A wannabe-Socialist? A limited-Socialist? A borderline-Socialist? A mixed bag with some socialism in it?
I think he is much too right wing for either label, but if you wanna go that way Social Democrat would be much more appropriate than Socialist.
Its a shame Social Liberal has a different meaning in the US than in Europe, because he is basically a fairly traditional Social Liberal in the European sense of the word. His health care reform was market based which in itself makes him to the right of Socialists and Social Democrats.
Why not use Moderate Progressive (as opposed to Radical Progressive) as a neutral American label?
