The snark comes back to bite

Let’s take a brief trip down memory lane, going back to May March 11 (thanks, ND) of this year. A Boston Globe columnist wrote a snarky piece on those dumb conservatives who were worrying about Obama’s economic policies:

Of all the inane accusations about President Obama, the silliest has to be this: The president is a socialist.

Obama’s plans are “one big down payment on a new American socialist experiment,” asserts House minority leader John Boehner. He’s “the world’s best salesman of socialism,” says Republican Senator Jim DeMint.

“Lenin and Stalin would love this stuff,” declares Mike Huckabee. Sean Hannity derides his agenda as “socialism you can believe in.” Obama is “a radical communist,” warns kooky Alan Keyes.

“Epithets are substituting for thinking,” observes Marc Landy, professor of political science at Boston College.

Are they ever.

He then spent quite a bit of time ragging on conservative talk radio hosts, along the way missing the irony of dumping loads of snark on them for dumping loads of snark on liberals. Finally he makes his case:

So let’s examine the matter. One defining aspect of socialism is state ownership, control, or direction of the economy. Think of Hugo Chavez nationalizing steel, cement, power, and telecommunications firms in Venezuela, and assuming control over foreign oil projects. Or of Francois Mitterrand nationalizing six of France’s largest industrial conglomerates, plus dozens of the country’s largest banks and investment houses, during his presidency.

And he provides a list of reasons why Obama’s policies aren’t socialist, aren’t near socialism, couldn’t possibly be considered anything like socialism.

But let’s take a look at where we are at the beginning of May, less than 2 months later:

• Banking: “The Obama administration has a plan to continue bailing out America’s banks without asking Congress for more money — by converting its loans to common stock, and in turn taking a large ownership stake in the companies.” (4/19/2009)
• Automobile Industry: “Once a symbol of capitalist might and U.S. industrial prowess, General Motors would be half owned by the Treasury under a new sweeping plan… The partial nationalization proposal… (4/28/2009)
• Health Care Industry: “Americans are becoming uneasy about the Obama and Democrats nationalized health care plans…” (4/12/2009)

He really couldn’t have done much more to pursue socialism in his first 100 days, could he?

That’s one for the conservatives, with the Globe yet to score.