Kevin Drum’s take may very well be accurate:
Here’s the good news: this record of progressive accomplishment officially makes Obama the most successful domestic Democratic president of the last 40 years. And here’s the bad news: this shoddy collection of centrist, watered down, corporatist sellout legislation was all it took to make Obama the most successful domestic Democratic president of the last 40 years. Take your pick.
I’m a glass half empty kind of guy myself.
There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who, when presented with a glass that is exactly half full, say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What’s up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don’t think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!
— The Truth, Terry Prachett
I guess Drum deliberately wrote "Democratic president" to exclude Nixon. And Bush II. Nixon's progressive record would beat Obama's by a wide margin, and Bush II's record should be about the same as Obama's.
So, restricting the set of competitors to Democrats in the last 40 years leaves two contenders. Being the best of three would not be that impressive, even if true, but even that is not clearly the case. Memory fails regarding Carter, but Clinton probably did at least as well as Obama on any measurable scale.
To conclude, I would say the glass is about 95% empty. The fact that this is the best that can be said of Obama is nauseating.