Mike never misses an opportunity to tell me that Obama has us on the road to socialism.

I have never been impressed with the arguments that "Obama is socialist" - partly because those who make the argument don't understand socialism.

Trying to place Obama under any "-ism" is actually quite complicated. He has pushed a very strange mix.

In socialism, the government owns the means of production. I've often felt Obama leans a bit more towards fascism, where you still have private ownership but under a great deal of govt control. That's a "win-win" for Obama, who can praise govt controls when things work, and blame greedy owners when things don't work. Socialism would not allow Obama to sit back and point the finger the way he often does. That's my way of saying he's too inept to even be a socialist.

Additionally, he's created a culture where the assault on First Amendment rights is getting REALLY bad. This is a topic that does not get enough press.

But the argument against Obama promoting fascism is that fascism is usually associated with strong nationalism....and Obama is anything but that.

And ironically, even though Nazism was short for "National Socialism", the Nazis were more like fascists. Hitler didn't nationalize Krupp Steel, but he did enforce many rules regarding production and wage/price controls. (No, I am not comparing Obama to a man who has the blood of six million people on his hands. I'm talking about general approach to commerce, economic, and first Amendment rights).

Sort of like what I said to Marcia and Tamar about Obama lacking any project management skills, the same could be said about the AHCA rollout. Imagine an inexperienced manager coming up with a plan that was far too large and complicated to achieve, in an area where that person had no work experience. That's about the kindest thing I can say about a mess that he'll (once again) blame on the Republicans. Up until now his M.O. has given him sympathetic and favorable publicity, but that's slowly starting to change. You now have an increasing # of left-wing organizations who are indeed "finding out what's in it".