During the election (and even since Obama's win) there was much discussion about Barack Obama being a Socialist.

Accuracy in Media, a conservative media monitoring organization, claimed that Obama had "International Socialist Connections".

WorldNetDaily even went so far as to blatantly ask "Is Obama a socialist?" claiming "unmistakable similarity between Obama's political beliefs and the beliefs of the Socialist Party USA". Brian Moore, 2008 Presidential candidate for Socialist Party USA, made it very clear that this isn't true at all.





As a quick aside, I think my favorite part of the WorldNetDaily article is this:

The Socialist Party USA recognizes the "right" of adequate housing for everyone

I love the scary quotes around the word right. Damn those Socialists wanting to make sure people have adequate housing!

People claimed that his support of universal health care was further evidence of his plan to push Socialism on America. But as Salon.com pointed out:

McCain and Palin claim that Obama's proposed healthcare system is socialist. It is nothing of the sort. It is a variant of the employer-friendly, insurance-friendly "play-or-pay" scheme discussed in the 1990s. Employers will be given the choice of providing tax-favored health insurance to their employees or being taxed to support a public insurance system. Over time the latter might expand, but for the foreseeable future our dysfunctional private insurance system will survive.

Anyone terrified of Socialism can relax. Obama isn't and never was a Socialist. Anyone who considers him or herself a Socialist can now get sad. Obama isn't and never was a Socialist.

This couldn't be made any clearer than his recent actions. As The New York Times reports:

Now, his reported selections for two of the major positions in his cabinet — Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton as secretary of state and Timothy F. Geithner as secretary of the Treasury — suggest that Mr. Obama is planning to govern from the center-right of his party, surrounding himself with pragmatists rather than ideologues.

On his selection of Timothy Geither, The New York Times said this:

"He’s no liberal," said a former colleague at the Treasury Department, where he managed the American response to the Asian financial crisis in the 1990s.

I've previously pointed out that he is already waffling on promises made during his campaign and he hasn't even been sworn in yet!

Obama's first Cabinet selection was Rahm Emanuel as his chief of staff. Emanuel is a centrist Democrat and former member of the Clinton White House. Contrary to ring-wing views, Clinton wasn't Liberal. He was a moderate. Clinton was only a Liberal if your basis for comparison is the late Ayatollah Khomeini. Clinton was definitely more Liberal than Khomeini.

Obama will most assuredly bring change from the Bush administration. He will do that by simply not being Bush. But positive and progressive change for America? We will have to wait and see. Thus far, it isn't looking too promising.