HUGE Romney Gaffe

[Franzl]

I'd just like to note that there is a fair bit of European right which is to the right of a lot of Democrats.

People often seem to misunderstand the nature of electoral politics, median voters and all that stuff.

Yes, particularly because it's difficult to compare political cultures that are just so different.

[Oakvale]

This kind of reminds me of the time someone (Wonkish?) claimed that Obama was further to the left than Dilma Rousseff.

[The_Texas_Libertarian]

Eisenhower kept the rate at 90%, so he was probably far to the left of Karl Marx.

I still find it amusing that the top tax rate defines how much of a Marxist/Socialist/Communist/Stalinist/other-ist-used-improperly a President is

[LastVoter]

(FWIW, I think Obama is a socialist, but that's not the point of this thread, is it?)

Yeah, because he totally advocates a centrally-planned economy.

It was informative reading that post because I wasn't actually aware that The Globalizer is apparently a massive hack.

Uninformative to me, however, as you're just reconfirming the same obvious truth you make clear in.  EVERY.  SINGLE.  POST.

Obama advocates for a top-down redistributive society.  How, exactly, is that not socialism?  He's practically the archetype.  The only blip is that he's not in a country receptive to his ideals, so he falls back to the next best thing, corporatist crony capitalism.

what the  did i just read?

[Hash]

Common sense ain't gonna fly with the good people of the Rethuglican Party.

[Wonkish1]

This kind of reminds me of the time someone (Wonkish?) claimed that Obama was further to the left than Dilma Rousseff.

Dilma Rousseff may have been a commie revolutionary when she was a kid, but that isn't what she is today. Barack Obama is to the left of Dilma today. She is for privatization of various government services Barack has never once been in support of that. In Brazil she is pro expansion of energy even when its dirty energy on the contrary Barack blocked Keystone and shutdown off shore drilling for the better part of a year by executive fiat. She also respects contract law, with Barack he had his administration goons go out to the GM bond holders and threaten them if they didn't accept the high hair cut Barack demanded(something many poor elderly people were counting on and where they lost a lot of money by force) also he advocated the ability of a judge to void a mortgage contract. You're talking about a woman who frequently got into almost violent fights with people who advocated a statist method of fixing everything when she was a bureaucrat. She is pro-life and Barack was the only Democrat in Illinois to vote to force doctors to kill a fetus that was still alive after a botched abortion. Lets also not forget that Dilma is actually cutting government spending in Brazil.

Ultimately, Dilma Rousseff is a welfare capitalist who is conservative on social issues. Barack Obama isn't a welfare capitalist because he wants the state to administer everything he can land his hands on and that is completely different than Dilma. Furthermore, he is to left on social issues. So yeah this discussion isn't even close.

And by the way I don't expect a 11 year old who focuses entirely on the fact that she was a guerrilla about 30 years ago to get into this level of detail.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

This isn't a gaffe, it is Mitten's nomination strategy.

[Link]

(FWIW, I think Obama is a socialist, but that's not the point of this thread, is it?)

Yeah, because he totally advocates a centrally-planned economy.

It was informative reading that post because I wasn't actually aware that The Globalizer is apparently a massive hack.

Uninformative to me, however, as you're just reconfirming the same obvious truth you make clear in.  EVERY.  SINGLE.  POST.

Obama advocates for a top-down redistributive society.  How, exactly, is that not socialism?  He's practically the archetype.  The only blip is that he's not in a country receptive to his ideals, so he falls back to the next best thing, corporatist crony capitalism.

what the  did i just read?

A load of shiat.

[Link]

Obama advocates for a top-down redistributive society.  How, exactly, is that not socialism?  He's practically the archetype.

It's always easy to pick out a member of the passportless masses who obviously has never been to a country with true widespread socialism.

Any politician who is from one of the major parties that is allowed within 100 miles of the front door of the White House isn't a socialist let alone "the archetype."  That should be your first clue.

[RogueBeaver]

Wishy-washy liberal yes, socialist no.

[TheGlobalizer]

Obama advocates for a top-down redistributive society.  How, exactly, is that not socialism?  He's practically the archetype.

It's always easy to pick out a member of the passportless masses who obviously has never been to a country with true widespread socialism.

Any politician who is from one of the major parties that is allowed within 100 miles of the front door of the White House isn't a socialist let alone "the archetype."  That should be your first clue.

I've been to Italy twice and Israel once.  Both of which I would consider variants of socialist states, in their particular ways.

To all the trolls: I didn't say that Obama had successfully implemented a socialist regime.  I said that he, personally, is a socialist.  His policies are directed at rerouting money by statist methods towards sectors and groups perceived to be inherently favorable from a public good analysis.  Where he cannot obtain that end directly, he uses existing crony capitalist structures (pharma deals, green tech startups, union ownership of private enterprises, etc.) as the mechanism for disrupting traditional market activities that he perceives to be problematic (health insurers, oil/gas, auto companies, respectively).  The thrust is to achieve a greater perceived outcome for society by interfering with the activities of market participants.

One cannot truly execute on a socialist strategy in the US.  There is little support.  But if you were going to try, you'd do what Obama is doing.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

If you consider this a "gaffe," you weren't voting for Romney anyway.

[Link]

Obama advocates for a top-down redistributive society.  How, exactly, is that not socialism?  He's practically the archetype.

It's always easy to pick out a member of the passportless masses who obviously has never been to a country with true widespread socialism.

Any politician who is from one of the major parties that is allowed within 100 miles of the front door of the White House isn't a socialist let alone "the archetype."  That should be your first clue.

His policies are directed at rerouting money by statist methods towards sectors and groups perceived to be inherently favorable from a public good analysis.

Sorta like Republicans and the military industrial complex?

[J. J.]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/post/romney-on-oreilly-obama-is-not-a-socialist/2011/12/19/gIQAyhAh5O_blog.html

This is not a gaffe:

You must be logged in to read this quote.

[TheGlobalizer]

Obama advocates for a top-down redistributive society.  How, exactly, is that not socialism?  He's practically the archetype.

It's always easy to pick out a member of the passportless masses who obviously has never been to a country with true widespread socialism.

Any politician who is from one of the major parties that is allowed within 100 miles of the front door of the White House isn't a socialist let alone "the archetype."  That should be your first clue.

His policies are directed at rerouting money by statist methods towards sectors and groups perceived to be inherently favorable from a public good analysis.

Sorta like Republicans and the military industrial complex?

That's not socialism, that's nationalism en route to fascism, but yeah, same basic principle.