World is round? Opinions differ

by digby

When President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign unveiled its new slogan, some conservative critics were quick to pounce. “Forward,” they asserted, is a word long associated with Europe’s radical left. Its choice reaffirmed their contention that Obama is, to some degree or other, a socialist – a claim that surfaced early in the 2008 campaign and has persisted ever since, fueling a lively industry of bumper stickers and books…

But to many historians and political scientists – and to actual socialists as well – the persistent claim that Obama is a socialist lacks credence.

He’s widely seen as a pragmatist within the Democratic Party mainstream who’s had ample success raising campaign funds from wealthy Wall Street capitalists. Even some of his strongest critics acknowledge that his administration hasn’t sought one of the classic forms of socialism – government control of the nation’s means of production.

You don’t say.

I guess in a country where 46% of the population are creationists, it’s reasonable that a news agency would explore a stupid topic like this. But there is no reason, once they did their “investigation”, not to come right out and say that Obama isn’t a socialist. He says he isn’t and his policies aren’t so this isn’t a matter of interpretation. It is a fact. Obama is not a socialist. End of story. What am I missing?

I don’t suppose you’ll be surprised to learn that I got the link to this story from Fox Nation, where this is a fairly representative comment:

Funny as heII … trolls refuse to acknowledge they or Obama are socialists … yet day after day they flout Europe and Canada’s socialist “successes”. So why are they afraid to be labeled what they endorse?

Because … the Communist Party of the USA has endorsed Obama since day one of his political career. They want to stay as far away from that truth AS POSSIBLE.