Socialists Say Obama Isn’t a Socialist

CNN asked the Socialist Party USA if they think he’s a socialist :

Obama’s opponents have long described him as a socialist. But what do actual socialists think about Obama? Not much, says Wharton.

“He’s the president whose main goal is to protect the wealth of the richest 5 percent of Americans.”

He and others say the assertion that Obama is a socialist is absurd.

“It makes no rational sense. It clearly means that people don’t understand what socialism is.”

Definitions of socialism vary, but most socialists believe workers and consumers who are affected by economic institutions should own or control them.

[ . . . ]

Those who call Obama a socialist, though, point to his policies. Big on their hit list: “Obamacare,” which they call “socialized medicine.”

Socialists scoff at the notion. They don’t applaud the passage of the recent health care bill either. They wanted a national “single-payer” health insurance plan with a government option. The bill that Obama championed didn’t have any of those features.

Wharton said the new health care bill only strengthens private health insurance companies. They get 32 million new customers and no incentive to change — something a socialist wouldn’t accept.

Obama is more of a technocratic redistributionist than a socialist, at least as the term has historically been used. But while more accurate, calling him a TR doesn’t quite have the same rhetorical oomph, does it?