It seems that the subject of Barack Obama’s radical political alliances is getting hotter in the search zeitgeist. Today I was reading a rumor that Obama was a member of a radical political party called the “New Party”. Here’s the damaging text, from a 1996 archived newsletter on the Chicago Democratic Socialists of America website:
Secondly, the NP’s ’96 Political Program has been enormously successful with 3 of 4 endorsed candidates winning electoral primaries. All four candidates attended the NP membership meeting on April 11th to express their gratitude. …. Barack Obama, victor in the 13th State Senate District, encouraged NPers to join in his task forces on Voter Education and Voter Registration”
(emphasis mine). Wow, task forces on voter education and voter registration? Scandalous.
Here are the Google search volumes for “obama new party” and “obama socialist”:
Google Search Volume: "obama new party", "obama socialist"
Silly as this all sounds, I think that the Obama campaign should do a little bit of damage control. Search on Google for “obama socialist” and the top results include links such as:
- Is America Ready for Obama? Is America Ready for a Socialist?
- Is Obama a socialist or a communist? – Yahoo! Answer
… and nothing from barackobama.com in the top 30 results. In fact, one of the four pages that I could find on the campaign website that even include the word “socialist”, uses it in the context of this quote:
“He’s shown a tendency to work on non-philosophical issues, but has been nowhere near the middle of the road, despite how he is trying to portray himself now,” Dillard said then. “Even though I have sponsored major legislation with Barack and I like him personally, clearly he is soft on crime and borderline socialist on health care.”
Hey, thanks for clearing things up, barackobama.com. If I were the Obama campaign, I’d post a page on the website comparing Obama’s policies to Socialism, and I’d give it a title like: “Barack Obama vs. Socialist Policies – A Side-by-Side Chart.” Then I’d link directly from this paragraph to my chart.
But that’s just me,
The Google Pollster.
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