Socialist, Again

Kevin Drum of Mother Jones describes a Winthrop poll of Republicans and Republcian leaners in South Carolina, one of the two most important states in the GOP nominating process.

Winthrop asked these prospective Repub primary voters about President Obama's religion and found 33.8% believing Obama is a Christian and 29.5% that he is a Muslim, while the others gave varying responses. Only 53.2% believe Obama was "definitely" or "probably" born in the United States.

Though the numbers of those who accept Obama's origin has increased since release of the long-form birth certificate, a full 74.2% of individuals queried believe "socialist" either "very well" or "well" describes the President.

This is an unusual socialist administration. The New York Times reports that New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has sued to prevent "a global settlement that would shut down ongoing investigations of numbers of those who think the U.S. president was born in the U.S. have grown since release of the long-form birth certificate. Nevertheless

In recent weeks, Shaun Donovan, the secretary of Housing and Urban Development, and high-level Justice Department officials have been waging an intensifying campaign to try to persuade the attorney general to support the settlement, said the people briefed on the talks.

Mr. Schneiderman and top prosecutors in some other states have objected to the proposed settlement with major banks, saying it would restrict their ability to investigate and prosecute wrongdoing in a variety of areas, including the bundling of loans in mortgage securities.

But Mr. Donovan and others in the administration have been contacting not only Mr. Schneiderman but his allies, including consumer groups and advocates for borrowers, seeking help to secure the attorney general's participation in the deal, these people said. One recipient described the calls from Mr. Donovan, but asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation.

The idea that a president who, on a year-to-year basis, has cut taxes more than did George W. Bush, can be accurately described as a socialist is absurd. But while the mainstream media effectively debunked the idea that Barack Obama was born outside of the country, and treated the idea that he was not a Christian as slightly peculiar, there has been little effort to explain that the President's economic policies have been mainstream and, given the times, fairly conservative. Coupled with pandering by Repub politicians, it is not incredible that so many GOP voters, in a very conservative state, would suspect that President Obama is a socialist.