The simmering question

About a year ago, America Wants To Know wrote a post titled "Barack Obama explains socialism" in reaction to Senator Obama's comments to a little girl about the need to make sure people with more money helped people with less money.

We receive reports from our web hosting company that tell us which pages draw the most traffic, and what phrases people most frequently typed into search engines to find the AmericaWantsToKnow.com site.

In October, the leading phrases were "Obama socialism," "Obama and socialism," "socialism Obama," and "Barack Obama socialism."

Closely following these were "Barack Obama and socialism," "socialism Barack Obama," "socialism and Barack Obama," "Obama on socialism," "Barack Obama on socialism," and "Barack socialism."

A lot of people were interested in "Laura Bush divorce" and "constitutional right to privacy," but then the list was overtaken again by "Barack Obama socialist," "Obama for socialism," "Barack and socialism," "socialism Barack," "Is Obama for socialism," "What is socialism, Obama," "Obama socialism?" and "Obama vs. socialism."

Then there were more people interested in "Laura and George Bush divorce," followed by "Obama's views on socialism," "Barak Obama and socialism," "socialism Barak Obama," "Barrack Obama and socialism," "socialism and Barak Obama," and "Barack Obama explains socialism."

People were also looking for "socialism & Obama," "Barack Obama's views on socialism," "socialism & Barack Obama," "Obama explains socialism," and "Barack Obama for socialism."

Also "Barack Obama's socialism," "Barack's socialism," "Barack Oboma/socialism," "socialism under Obama," "socialism vs. Obama," "Obama socialism," "Obama socialism argument," and "compare Obama and socialism."

There's more of this, but you get the idea.

Over five thousand people came to the America Wants To Know site in October alone to read this year-old post, and a quick Google search informs us that the essay has been widely lifted, copied, pasted, posted, e-mailed and sent around the Internet where it has been read on dozens if not hundreds of other sites.

And this has been going on for months.

It started long before John McCain and Joe the Plumber began using the "S" word.

America Wants To Know writes on a wide variety of subjects, but the level of concern about John McCain's lobbyist connections or Sarah Palin's finances or Joe Biden's odd comments just pales in comparison to the interest in "Barack Obama/Socialism," "Obama=socialism," "Is Obama for socialism?" and "socialism with Obama."

We did have a lot of traffic the week our in-house psychic medium conjured up the spirit of Redd Foxx to explain the Microsoft commercial featuring Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates in a shoe store.

But even that doesn't compare to the level of interest in "Barack Obama explains socialism."

This is not a scientific survey, of course.

Every scientific survey says Barack Obama is going to win the election in a walk.

We'll believe it when we see it.


Copyright 2008

Editor's note: You might be interested in reading "Defending Capitalism" at www.SusanShelley.com.

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