"Democrats hug the hope that Obama is really the liberal Ronald Reagan -- but without wit, humor, an explainable ideology or an effective economic plan." Obama is an old-fashioned hardline marxist-leninist. When will you clueless conservatives finally get the obvious? His monster bills - stimulus, obamacare, financial reform - are about setting the stage for a centrally planned and controlled economy. That the private sector is collapsing in the process is not a bug, it's a feature. Obama's new economy will be run through state-owned companies whereever he can get away with it and 1930s European-style corporatist structures - "public-private partnerships" - in what is left of the private sector.

It was a big mistake of Boehner to give Obama the opportunity to blame the economic disaster on Geithner and Summers and throw them under the bus. It is Obama's economic policy! He is driving. Anything he does is a deliberate towards an old-fashioned Soviet-style centrally planned economy, using direct government take-over where he can get away with it and 1930s continental European-style corporatist structures for what is left of the private sector. Hold Obama accountable for the results of his policies! His entire MO has been to take credit for what works and blame others for what doesn't. That is why Obama doesn't mind a Republican Congress. Boehner is handing him an opportunity on a platter.

This civilian force is not so much a secret police, more like "the long march through the institutions" on steroids. He was talking about putting his people in every corner of society. That is why I say Republicans should focus on dismantling all the boards, commissions, czars, institutes, etc. Obama put in place over the last two years, because that is where the real power will be. It is standard marxist/fascist practice.

Exactly!

"Republicans and those that believe in the free market would do well to study her style ..." The Republican party is still controlled by "the conservative base" that has no clue about free market and constitutional issues. They think it's all about taxes. Conservatives have other priorities. Even Sarah Palin is talking nonsense that the government should "provide services", only do it "more efficiently".

It has nothing to do with capitalism. This is what socialists do when they are in power. It is corporatism or fascism.

Obama is a old-fashioned marxist-leninist, using tried and tested methods to implement total state control without a destructive class/civil war as the young Soviet Union experienced. The methods he uses are from 1920/30s Europe with a bit of Chavez' Venezuela to update it. It's Mussolini's corporatism ("public-private partnerships"), creation of new governmental structures outside democratic control, takeover of key companies to gradually increase control over their sectors, etc. And yes, fascism describes the end result fine.

As long as Republicans keep running on conservatism versus liberalism, they will lose - 42 percent is still a minority. If Republicans ran on Liberty versus socialism, they would win in landslides. The Founding Fathers were classic liberals, not conservatives. Socialists hijacked liberalism. They are not liberals! Stop calling them liberals, call them progressives or socialists.

@ Dan ("I am beginning to think he is intending to ignite a race war as a means to maintaing his power, a class war will not be sufficient by itself.") Please don't take that bait. Obama is not black. He is the son of a white communist from Kansas who never really knew his Kenyan dad. Yes, race is exploited, but that is nothing new. That has been a mainstay of the white marxist tradition for half a century. With the rise of the middle class in the western world after WWII, thanks to individual liberty and capitalism, the socialists/marxists saw their chances diminish. So they shifted their hopes to the "third world" as the new vanguard of the revolution. That is probably why Ann Dunham from Kansas as a marxist student hooked up...

My point was that originally Afghanistan was a part in a broader strategy aimed at isolating islamists and democratizing the Middle East. Obama abandoned that agenda and in isolation there is no point to a ground war in Afghanistan.