The ever bubbly Ron Paul:

“Near the end of the third day of this year’s Southern Republican Leadership Conference, it was time for Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) to take the stage. Paul, fresh off his victory in the CPAC straw poll, gave a characteristically fired-up speech that took on the views of the Republican party establishment.

“The question has been raised about whether or not our president is a socialist,” Paul said. “I am sure there are some people here who believe it. But in the technical sense, in the economic definition of a what a socialist is, no, he’s not a socialist.”

“He’s a corporatist,” Paul continued. “And unfortunately we have corporatists inside the Republican party and that means you take care of corporations and corporations take over and run the country.”

Why TPM thinks Ron Paul’s opinion is significant to the base is questionable. It’s not. The CPAC straw poll was a fluke.

Paul of course is wrong. Obama isn’t anything near a “corporatist” in belief or action. He wanted a socialist model of healthcare reform and got darn close to it. He wanted – and got to a large measure – government takeover of business, but he wanted more. He has written about, preached about and with the coming tax increases believed in wealth redistribution.

Judging Obama’s beliefs can’t be done on what he’s accomplished but on what he wants to accomplish. Barack Obama belief system to the core is socialism and if left unabated and unchallenged he would rise to that occassion.