Obama's Liberal Streak Positions Democrats In November

Just like Harry Reid seems liberated by not having to run for re-election, so President Obama seems to be letting his inner liberal out as his term winds down. First, there was the move to protect millions of illegal immigrants from deportation. Then there was the executive action on the environment last summer to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from coal-powered plants. Then his Justice Department stepped up their scrutiny of corporate mergers and acquisitions, blocking a number of them from going forward and probably making others think long and hard about going forward. And more recently, there was the directive to all public schools to allow transgender students to use the bathroom of their gender identity. Finally, yesterday, his Labor Department announced new rules to more then double the salary level at which overtime must be paid. This will increase the paychecks of millions of employees and potentially increase employment as well, as it becomes cheaper to hire a new worker than pay excessive overtime.  Of course, all of these actions drive the Republican base to distraction; but all of them are great issues to run on in the November election. It is finally nice to see Democrats, especially the President, staking out important liberal positions, as opposed the usual tactic of trying to blur the differences with Republicans, going into a general election.