Comments

1
does the poll also ask those, who believe he is a socialist, to define the term "socialist"? My guess is 90% of them have no clue what that actually means
2
Kind of amusing, considering he's right of center, just like his judicial appointments.

Most of the people who rail against socialism are themselves active practitioners of Socialism - they privatize profit and socialize risk, and live off of socialized services like Medicare and Social Security.
3
I agree that they should ask a follow up question for those surveyed to define socialism.
4
Ah, yes, the stupid voters. Hey folks here's an idea, lets have Pres. Obama explain the world to them, he said the GOP is a like a teenager who drove the family car into a ditch, so you don't give the car keys back to the teenager for a while, so don't vote GOP.

This is brilliant, as it appear's he's saying

1. at heart the GOP is lovable -- like our wayward teenage son!
2. purty soon we'll be wanting to give the car keys back to the GOP, aw shucks!
3. the GOP was just negigent in their choice of policies, they're truly having an honest hard time arriving at the right conclusions (not that old socialist creed, that somehow the fact that their policy choices fucking enrich them has anything to do with it! that explanation doesn't work, you see, cuz you get called a socialist! on no we don't want that do we!)
4. in his analogy, we're the parents, see? so it's pretty cool cuz in his analogy there aren't 15 million unemployed who're suffering, it's pretty cool cuz is you face that you need to maybe take stronger action? but if you do that, you get called a socialist, we don't want that that hurts our feelings.

All hail Obama the great communicator! His teenager analogy to the GOP will surely bring back hordes of independent voters and educate all these dumbass voters -- as it explains our economic and political situation so well!

A teenager who drove a car in a ditch, that'll really kick their ass!
5
They're just mad at him for starting that war in Afghanistan.
6
I like the folks that say that he is a socialist, nazi, communist, and a fascist all in the same breath. Oh Wait, no I don't. It actually just makes me horribly depressed that our education system has failed these people so very much.
7
I still wish he hadn't led al-Qaeda in the move into Afghanistan, but, hey, bygones.
8
Yeah, if Obama truly followed socialism as I believe these people are defining/thinking of it (a centrally planned and controlled economy run by an authoritarian leader), he'd have already fixed the economy. It's precisely the fact that things are still pretty fucked that substantiate the fact that he is a centrist (if not center-right), in that he hasn't nationalized everything (healthcare, the oil industry, etc), despite overwhelming proof these industries need to be fixed.
9
"transubstantiate"----???????
10
pffft, i WISH he was a socialist.
11
@10, I wish he was just a moderate liberal at this point.
12
I can't help but think that maybe they don't actually believe that - that their indicated preference is, rather, intended to indicate disapproval. Perhaps those 55% would also indicate that they thought "bastard" described him "well" or "very well," even though his parentage is an open-and-shut matter of public record, settled conclusively to the satisfaction of anyone with an ounce of... uh, okay, bad example.

Anyway, I suppose the real significance of this story is as one more piece of supporting evidence for the increasingly, distressingly clear fact that in the absence of strong public education and a culture of critical thinking, capitalism is the enemy of democracy. Or, in short: fuck you, News Corp.
13
To say that Obama is not a socialist is mostly correct. The remaining uncertainty can only be answered by the President himself; because, like all of us, our political dispositions are continuously evolving. Most don't understand the finer details of economic theory regarding socialism; nevertheless, "socialism" is the next big category to the left of "free market capitalism" so I'm sure this sentiment would be evolving regardless of Fox News. Sorry 'Will in Seattle', I just can’t nuance Obama to the right of America’s center line.
14
I should point out that Michael Gerson, Comrade Bush's speechwriter, has an interesting column today in the Washington Post about how the Tea Party will destroy the GOP and that the November elections will be a disaster for them.

So, @13, maybe you need to realize that everything is subject to interpretation, and that your worldview is a very very narrow one, blinkered by your own restricted viewpoint ...
15
No, Phoebe's right. Will, as usual, is wrong. Why am I not surprised?
16
@9--that's when you get in a box and you come out as a different animal.

Wait, sorry...that's transmogrify.
17
@15 i even quoted sources. Grow up.
19
Damn - first commentor stole my comment!
20
@14: Why are you so edgy? You have no idea what my viewpoint is - just because I disagree with you on where to draw the center line? That's only my opinion on the current political landscape. Come on now.
21
#9 - "Transubstantiate" is pretty well-known to those of us with a catholic background, but I can well imagine that it doesn't get used very often by others. In catholic doctrine, transubstantiation is the "miracle" that happens during the precise moment in the Mass when the priest transforms the bread and wine into the actual - literal - body and blood of Jesus. So it basically means to change one thing into another completely different thing. Usually requires a miracle.
22
oooh-
you hipsters Libs are sooo smart!
and you know so many big words...
it must be hard not to be smug and selfsatisfied.
and your brainy professor/president
is doing such a nifty job-
the very essence of competence.
ya'll should move to a country that is worthy
of your great intellect and moral superiority-
we're totally Not Worthy......
23
Socialist?
silly.
just because Obama acts like Hugo Chavez?
an arrogant arbitrary ham-fisted blundering goof
with no regard for private property rights?
looting the fruits of those who came before
and stealing from those who will follow?

why-
that's crazy talk.....
24
lol @22 and 23, great troll.
25
When did "socialist" become such a pejorative term? I thought it used to describe a sort of "softer" form of communism...
26
One has to ask oneself, if they covered our President in Dark Mint Chocolate, would they love him more, or are they just Racist and call him a Socialist so they don't have to admit it?
27
and here's the link for you lazy lazy lazy people

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con…
28
How many voters believe he's a muslin?
29
How many voters could find their ass with both hands?
30
Any American who drives on public streets and highways, sends their children to public schools, visits public museums or libraries, attends sporting events or concerts at city-owned facilities, collects unemployment, etc., is a direct beneficiary of a form of socialist government. But they have to have something to rail against. They're simply too stupid to understand. Of course these are usually the same people who wave their bibles in the air denouncing homosexuality as an abomination, while ignoring the rest of the Mosaic laws that, if strictly enforced, would result in their own executions under a religious fundamentalist government such as Iran's.
31
Oh Will, once again you are PWNING us with your superior wisdom and intellect. I genuflect to your awesomeness.
32
"It actually just makes me horribly depressed that our education system has failed these people so very much."

...by design.
33
@25 - i wonder the same thing
34

Time for a test to vote. Yes I know messy history, but if it prevents another Bush era...
35
@21 --- Thanks for the lesson (but I went to seminary). Dan isn't using "transubstantiation" correctly, and neither are you. It means just what you said, and not what you want it to say.

I will give him some dredit for trying to be poetic about the way Republicans et al. seems to want miraculous changes etc.
36
If Obama was a Socialist, Noam Chomsky would eat his shoe.
37
While writing my earlier comment I had been trying to recall a story I'd read years ago that points to the general ignorance of many American voters. I finally located the story, and though it is apocryphal, it still makes a point.

"In the Florida Senatorial campaign of 1950 Congressman George Smathers was challenging
the incumbent Senator Claude Pepper in the Democratic primary. Smathers allegedly printed
leaflets circulated in rural, under-educated areas saddling Pepper with the nickname "Red" Pepper and
listing some "indecencies" such as:

- that his brother was a "practising Homosapien"
- that he had a sister in wicked New York who was a "thespian"
- that he was known all over Washington as a "shameless extrovert"
- that he was reliably reported to practice "nepotism" with his sister-in-law
- that before his marriage he habitually engaged in "celibacy"
- and that Pepper had "matriculated" with young women.

Smathers won."

While the veracity of the story may be questionable, the tactic supposedly used then is STILL being used by Republicans, conservatives and the religious right against Democrats, liberals, the LGBT community and any other group they don't agree with. The old maxim that if you repeat a lie often enough people will believe it as truth certainly applies here.
38
It's mindboggling that a majority of Americans now believe that Obama is a socialist, yet there are still people out there (many, in fact) who believe that the media from which most people get their information is biased *in favor* of liberals.
39
What 10 said!
40
There's a big difference between these 2 tests...
Q: Is Obama a socialist, or that other thing?
A: 55% said socialism look at that!
Q: How would you describe Obama's 18 months in office so far?
A: 55% Not socialism how in the world!
Polls are so scientific.
41
@40:
We asked Americans this question: "Does Obama act more like a socialist or a particle physicist?"
zOMG! Americans think our president's a socialist!!!

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