I don’t agree with the way Ms. West framed her questions and I think we should all be respectful in our quest to get a clear understanding of both candidates positions. The standard for journalists in throwing certain terms around is certainly higher than for the average person, I suppose.

At the same time, I think debating what constitutes Marxism is somewhat irrelevant to the average person and misses the point that what was most alarming wasn’t the “spreading the wealth” phrase as much as the context in which Obama used it. The truth is most people have some vague recollection from high school that Communism was pretty much boiled down to “redistribution of wealth.” For the boomers who I think occupy maybe the the largest population of likely voters, it was the big Bogeyman of their generation. So the phrase “spreading the wealth” is like dropping the “F” bomb on grandma.

With that as the backdrop, it’s exacerbated by the context in which Obama used it with “Joe the Plumber”— which I’ll paraphase as “taking it from one person who worked very hard to make it in the first place and giving it to someone else so they have the same chance at success”.

I’d venture to say that most of this boomer middle class came from modest means and achieved success through nothing more than bone hard work…(as well as much of the middle class even today)…whether it was working tirelessly to own their own business (and never stop working tirelessly to keep it going)…or working full time while going to school at night or taking out loans they finally paid off ten years later….To be told that you are going to take their hard earned money and give it to someone else so they don’t have to work as hard as you did making it is like putting a match to gasoline.

We all understand that we have a progressive tax system and accept that with success there will be proportionally more taxes…but considering that our economy is in a shambles, the infrastructure is falling apart, that we are still at war, that our national debt is beyond the beyond, including trillions of dollars of entitlement liabilities…the last thing they want to hear is that Obama wants to use it to fund another entitlement program (i.e., so people don’t have to work as hard as they did…)

Subsequent discussions by the Obama campaign have dismissed the “spread the wealth” comment as no different than any tax revenue used by the government for the benefit of the masses.

Unfortunately, the context and the specificity to which the phrase was applied didn’t sound so innocuous…..

and then when they put it together with that peripheral radical association stuff that had been buzzing around, I think it pushed some folks beyond their comfort zone with the whole concept.

Three cheers for Ms. West for daring to challenge the campaign on the topic (unlike the majority of the media) and shame on Biden for appearing insulted and arrogant at being challenged (and for the campaign in chastising the station). They forget that journalists are the people’s only vehicle for getting to our truth. The candidates should not be getting indignant with the outlets that give them that opportunity every day to demonstrate with candor, grace and intelligence who is the better candidate. Who is the boss and who is the hired help? Obama/Biden got it very backwards. Shame on them!