Obama Gets The Communists

"The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism. But, under the name of 'liberalism,' they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program, until one day America will be a socialist nation, without knowing how it happened." - Norman Thomas, U.S. Socialist Party presidential candidate 1940, 1944 and 1948

It's one thing when Obama, the Democrats' standard bearer to be, is identified as the most liberal senator. It is something else, something quite extreme, when Obama is recognized as the darling of the Communist Party USA.

That's right, Joelle Fishman -- chair of the Communist Party USA Political Action Commission and the Connecticut Communist Party -- backs Obama.

Perhaps it is no surprise. After all, except for public financing of campaigns, Obama's positions are very similar to those of the Communist Party USA:

Among the points in the party's "Immediate Program" are a $12/hour minimum wage; for all workers, universal health care, and opposition to privatization of Social Security; economic measures such as increased taxes on "the rich and corporations," strong regulation of the financial industry, "regulation and public ownership of utilities," and increased federal aid to cities and states; opposition to the Iraq War and other military interventions; opposition to free trade treaties such as NAFTA; nuclear disarmament and a reduced military budget; various civil rights provisions; campaign finance reform including public financing of campaigns; and election law reform, including Instant Runoff Voting

This may not be a shock to the few who bother to do appropriate due diligence on Obama. Nevertheless, it is too much out of the mainstream -- too much progressivism liberalism socialism -- for me.