Lessons of November.

• Author: Rothschild, Matthew
• Position: Comment - Republican Party's success at the midterm elections - Essay

November's slaughter at the polls should sound the death knell for corporate liberalism and should silence Barack Obama's apologists.

The President's post-mortem press conference underscored why he lost public confidence, and why progressives should no longer invest hope in him.

To a great extent, he adopted the message of the Republicans. He talked about the need to reduce our deficit so we don't "leave our children a legacy of debt" and so we're not "racking up the credit card for the next generation."

Those lines could have come straight out of the mouth of Rand Paul.

And like Paul, Obama saluted business and the free market: "The reason we've got an unparalleled standard of living in the history of the world is because we've got a free market that is dynamic and entrepreneurial, and that free market has to be nurtured and cultivated."

Then he pitied big business.

"You just had a successive set of issues in which I think business took the message that, well, gosh, it seems like we may be always painted as the bad guy," he said. "And so I've got to take responsibility in terms of making sure that I make clear to the business community as well as to the country that the most important thing we can do is to boost and encourage our business sector."

Really? That's "the most important thing" he has to do?

Obama also quickly backpedaled on expanding the role of government, conceding without qualification that some people thought "government was getting much more intrusive into people's lives." Amazingly, he said, "I'm sympathetic to folks who looked at it and said this is looking like potential overreach."

Rather than represent an ideological alternative, he tried to blur the ideological lines. "None of the challenges we face lend themselves to simple solutions or bumper-sticker slogans," he said. "Nor are the answers found in any one particular philosophy or ideology."

The leader of the Democratic Party provided no answer to the rightwing ideologues who staged a takeover of the House of Representatives, gained ground in the Senate, and swept statehouses and governors' mansions across the land. These victories will enable conservatives to redistrict America and consolidate power.

Obama's ideological surrender is a shame because the message of the midterm elections was not that voters thought he "overreached" in trying to fix the economy, address the housing crisis, of create jobs, but that he didn't do enough.

It's important to note that while...