Obama: "FDR Was Called a Socialist and a Communist" [View all]

[Oilwellian]

Sound familiar?

The president was accused of being "a socialist, not a Democrat." His plan was described as "undisguised state socialism." One critic, who controlled some powerful media outlets, suggested that communists had infiltrated the president's administration.

Those are some of the attacks that Franklin Delano Roosevelt faced in the 1930s — attacks cited recently by President Barack Obama to emphasize that he's not unique.

Obama has mentioned the Roosevelt comparison several times recently, including during an interview on Late Night with David Letterman on Sept. 21, 2009:

"What's happened is that whenever a president tries to bring about significant changes, particularly during times of economic unease, then there is a certain segment of the population that gets very riled up," Obama said. "FDR was called a socialist and a communist."
Indeed, Roosevelt was called a socialist or a communist many times. Most of that criticism came in the 1930s, when he was enacting programs intended to pull the country out of the Great Depression.

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2009/sep/22/barack-obama/obama-roosevelt-socialist-communist/

Obama was also called a Socialist and Communist during his 2008 campaign, hence his many comments about FDR being accused of the same thing.

What is unique about this campaign season, it is now Democrats who are leveling those accusations toward a Democratic candidate, and have no qualms with joining Republicans and embracing their inner McCarthyism.

How embarrassing for the Democratic party.