"I think the Sweden vs. Japan quote from Obama shows that he’s really a market guy at heart, "
^^^^^^ CB: I can't imagine Bush, Clinton,Bush, Reagan... Johnson.. any modern American President saying anything like
Obama: "So you’d think looking at it, Sweden looks like a good model."
Then, he never says it's a bad model. He just says America has a different culture.
Actually, O's discussion gives the opposite impression from your claim that he's a "market guy at heart." Notice the quiet implication that the Japanese approach of constantly pumping money into the _market_ doesn't look as good as the Swedish model. ( Does that mean he understands the Keynesian liquidity trap ?) He seems to want to cheat on America with
a goodlooking Swedish model... but it would be kind of unAmerican ( as in the House UnAmerican Activities Committee) to do so.
And of course he is really right about that.
His use of "culture" is a euphemism for "hardline, fanatically anti-communist ideology drummed into everybody's head for the 40 years up until 20 years ago, the former third rail of American politics before the SU became former."
He's not really sure that the ghost of McCarthy is exorcised; and he is not going to give the Republicans a "cultural" stick to beat him with. (Nor do Americans seem to have a lot of favor for European culture these days)
Nor did the US public elect him based on a promise to be an aggressive radical or "countercultural" politician. That's not his mandate. Most Americans interpreted his change slogan as a promise to stop the nasty rightwing extremism of Bush. You are talking as if he was elected to carry out your ideas, which are slightly more left than his; and when you know he didn't campaign to your liking.
Finally , I'm trying to figure if the following sounds like an anti-market guy at heart:
"consume less, borrow less, equalize the distribution of income so that those of modest means aren’t driven to manic borrowing from those with too much money to spare, and invest in things with a long-term economic and social payoff. "