Obama the socialist

Jonah Goldberg is one of the deeper thinking non academics around today and in this article from Commentary Magazine he deals with the subject of socialism, its history and goals, and Barack Obama's vision for America.  He thinks Obama is not a socialist in the sense of one who believes in the public ownership of the means of production, distribution and equality of outcomes, etc, but more as a Fabian socialist, or incrementalist who sees the vision of a fairer, more just, etc society and wants to get there incrementally.  He also points out that never getting "there" is part of the mindset of the Fabians because to do so would mean there is no more striving for utopia, and then the gig is up.  Or something like that.  This is a complicated story for such a short article but does explain in the context of his actions as president, i.e., nationalizing car companies, nationalizing big banks, nationalizing the healthcare industry.

Added:  Goldberg weighs in with a short piece here that makes a humorous and accurate point or two on the subject of socialism again.