Obama isn't a socialist, but there is come cause for worry. This morning I read that Obama is not ruling out a bailout for the newspaper business. For a lot of solid good technical and economic reasons the newspaper business is in decline. News isn't going away soon. If the paper business dies it will be replaced. There is no good reason to bail out the newspaper business, yet the President is willing to consider a bailout. Whenever a dying business is bailed out the emergent replacement is stifled. It is entirely possible that this willingness to bail out every industry is going to do long term damage to our economy.

Maybe if we spent a little time wondering what a lot of Americans are worried about we might be able to get beyond the socialist/communist name calling.

Wow. It's really good to see Boehner get all real like that.

I'm an American. And I'm not "scared to death" of the Democratic agenda. I guess he means "Americans are scared to death" the same way Osama Bin Laden would say "Americans are the Great Satan" or the French would say "Americans are assholes."

I think he means "a few certifiably insane Americans are scared to death."

Meanwhile, it's a real shame the word "socialism" has been co-opted by the Right like so many other perfectly decent words just to make sure we "Americans" can never really have a legitimate conversation about real socialism and real capitalism and what mix of the two might be the best thing for the US.

One could argue (and I am) that No Child Left Behind, the Prescription Drug Bill, and the Bush Bank Bailout are "socialist."

Pot to Kettle. . .

Regretably, since the 'excuse' of 9/11, the Rethugnican motto has become "We have nothing to fear but the loss of fear itself!"

What does the rethug party have left in its arsenal besides fear and hate? It sure is not policies!

I likes me some "hard Hittin' " journalists. Oh! the no holds barred followup questions. You go David!

/snark

Sounds to me like if Gregory had been on the ball, he could have quoted Boehner's statement that Terkel caught (Smart producers would have bloggers working for them) and then asked "So, you're now saying that you reject your earlier statement?"

I think it's worth pointing out that the right wing in this country defines "socialism" to be "anything other than anarchy".

That's not what socialism actually is, of course, but to hear them "explain" it, socialism means anything that a government does on behalf of its citizens. Well, except stuff they agree with, because "that's different". Somehow.

Ah yes, David balanced the President's interview with my two favorite Republicans, Corn Cob and Huckleberry. What was most striking, I thought, was how genuine, sincere, pleasant and intelligent Obama came off compared to the Repub duo. They looked conniving and defensive just sitting there. And when they opened their mouths it was very apparent how desperate they were to shove predetermined talking points into the conversation.

Actually the great trick is, we are all scrambling around saying it is a horrible insult to call someone a "socialist." This word has a million meanings, from revolutionary Marxism to European social democracy. By using it as a pejorative the Right gets to attack all of that all at once.

One of the problems of the Left in this country is that it is constantly on the defensive, eager to retreat from its own principles and even the words that it uses to identify itself. The right has made "liberal" a dirty word, now "socialist." In our great retreat we have adopted the label "progressive." They'll attack that next and we'll come up with something else in our constant effort to kowtow to to their abuses. Maybe we should just call ourselves "cowards" and be done with the whole game. Grow a fucking spine people.

One of the problems of the Left in this country is that it is constantly on the defensive, eager to retreat from its own principles and even the words that it uses to identify itself.

That certainly used to be true, and there are probably still lingering effects of this, but I don't think this is true these days. I'd argue that the beginning of the modern era of our standing up to the bullies started when Dean became head of the DNC and we started winning elections again.

I'm issuing a challenge here. We can all speak to ourselves and make ourselves feel good, which is fine. We need to start attacking, as our leaders apparently lack this skill. The Internet has become the source for misinformation. What I do is everyday read a local paper filled with misinformation because it caters to the local crowd who are mostly wingnuts. There are many wingnut blogs that do the same, like Malkin and those at Foxnews. Here's my local paper in the Shenandoah Valley, which is part of the Bible belt and leans right. http://dnronline.com/index.php Read the editorials and letters section showing the stunnung stupidy here. I am "flyonthewall" and there's others on the right who fight back. It's tough and you need thick skin, but ya know what, it's all virtual conversation and sticks and stones may break my bones and that will never happen. One thing I try not to do is link Steve's take, because they simply dismiss it because it's a left wing blog. Typical discourse of the misinformed and unedcated. Link to other sources and try not to show biased and point out the facts. Now get out there and fight back.

I think it worth repeating. Obama didn't come into office on a platform of nationalizing the auto companies. The free market private enterprise auto companies failed. Banking crisis? The free market private enterprise banks looted the system, and then failed.

Obama doesn't want to socialize the economy. He is cleaning up after the failure of free market private enterprise.

To DH Walker:

I hope you are right. I agree Dean was an expression of the unashamed faction within the party, I certainly was excited by his candidacy. Of course he was torn down because of what he represented. Change is often slow.