Obama and Socialism

Here's a nugget of clarity from the News Journal account (by Beth Miller and Dara McBride) of the rather modest Tea Party demonstration outside Legislative Hall yesterday:

President Barack Obama, who is not on record as advocating socialism, was a target of most speakers.

You read it right: Obama "is not on record as advocating socialism."

In other news, Mike Castle was one of three Republican representatives to vote for the financial reform bill designed to keep Wall Street from plunging us into another financial crisis. Obama yesterday pounced on House GOP leader John Boehner's comment that the reform bill was "killing an ant with a nuclear weapon," repeating the phrase with relish in a speech in Racine, Wisconsin:

The leader of the Republicans in the House said that financial reform was like — I’m quoting it — “using a nuclear weapon to target an ant.” That’s what he said. He compared the financial crisis to an ant. This is the same financial crisis that led to the loss of nearly eight million jobs. The same crisis that cost people their homes, their life savings.

There is a long tradition, going back to Teddy Roosevelt, of regulating capitalism to keep markets from raging out of control and hurting the customers and investors they are intended to serve. We still live in a capitalist system, despite — or perhaps thanks to — the reforming ways of presidents like Teddy Roosevelt, FDR and Obama.