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Al Sharpton Admits Obama Is a Socialist!*

*According to right-wing pundits and an out-of-context sound bite

By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff

Posted Mar 23, 2010 11:05 AM CDT

(Newser) – The conservative media is doing backflips over a video they’re touting as the long-sought smoking-gun proof that Barack Obama is a socialist. In an interview with Geraldo Rivera Sunday on Fox News, Al Sharpton uttered—get this!—that “the American public overwhelmingly voted for socialism when they elected President Obama.” Wow! Case closed, right? Conservatives sure thought so, with Newsbusters, the Heritage Foundation, and finally Glenn Beck jumping to tout the quote.

But if you actually watch the video (left), you’ll see that Sharpton is just “smacking down a talking point introduced by Geraldo,” writes Alex Koppelman in Salon. Geraldo posits that Obama is leading the country “some would argue to socialism.” Sharpton’s point is that, if this is socialism, the public voted for it. “The president promised the American people health reform when he ran, he was overwhelmingly elected … and he has delivered what he promised.”

Rev. Al Sharpton arrives for the special screening of Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married Too? on Monday, March 22, 2010 in New York.
Rev. Al Sharpton arrives for the special screening of Tyler Perry's "Why Did I Get Married Too?" on Monday, March 22, 2010 in New York.   (AP Photo/Jessica Rinaldi)
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The interview that conservatives are touting as smoking gun proof that Obama is a socialist.   (dtpowell7)
Glenn Beck highlights Sharpton's quote.   (ObamaGone2012)

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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 50 comments
landmineluetenant
Aug 23, 2010 2:41 PM CDT
Al Sharpton is a socialist, he was not responding merely "smacking down a talking point" as this biased article posits. Al Sharpton spends his life distorting the message of a true American hero, Martin Luther King, whose original message was one of color-blindness-- "I have a dream that people will be judged by the content of their character not the color of their skin"-- into a message of Socialism "MLK's dream will not be realized until...all people have equal things in their homes"
-MLK would roll over in his grave if he knew the way this bigot is distorting his message into to meet a socialist agenda.
thekeepitrealman
Mar 24, 2010 1:15 PM CDT
Next up, Nation of Islam leader, Min. Louis Farrakhan says he "THINKS Pres. Obama's programs MIGHT be SOMEWHAT socialist" and draws praise from conservative groups all around the nation. Glen Beck breaks down on his show and Sean Hannity calls the Minister "A GREAT AMERICAN!"
FreeThemAll
Mar 24, 2010 2:36 AM CDT
I think it's time to post a dictionary definition of "socialism":
socialism |'so sh ??liz?m|
noun
a political and economic theory of social organization that advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole.
• policy or practice based on this theory.
• (in Marxist theory) a transitional social state between the overthrow of capitalism and the realization of communism.
The term “socialism” has been used to describe positions as far apart as anarchism, Soviet state communism, and social democracy; however, it necessarily implies an opposition to the untrammeled workings of the economic market.The socialist parties that have arisen in most European countries from the late 19th century have generally tended toward social democracy.

By this definition we've had socialism (the means of production, distribution, and exchange ..... regulated by the community as a whole) in this nation for a least a century. It started with the first anti-trust law enacted in the 19th century. But it's not the denotation of a word that matters as much as the connotation -- the idea or feeling that a word invokes in a person, that is if a person allows himself to be so manipulated. Intelligent, thoughtful people do not allow themselves to be thus manipulated.

 
Barack Obama • Al Sharpton • Geraldo Rivera • socialism • Fox News • health care reform

 
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