BO: I am not a socialist

Maureen Dowd alluded to this in her column about Michelle O's "thunder and lightening" arms (as described by David Brooks who shared a taxi with her--MoDo not Michelle, but I digress)--mentioning Obama called back after the Times interview to insist he was not a socialist. Now we get more on the interview, where the discussion of whether our President Barack Obama was a socialist took up a quarter of the interview. Apparently he said no, but as RedState puts it, given the size and direction of his initiatives:

The New York Times couldn’t accept Obama’s answer either. The reporters wondered what would be wrong with saying yes...

RedState has the relevant excerpts--see what you think. (And what's with the total gobbledygook on cap and trade helping the economy? How does a crippling tax that discourages energy production help our economy?) But I have to say this reminds me of Nixon saying I am not a crook. Remember back before he unveiled his punitive socialist policy prescriptions, before he slipped up with Joe the Plumber, how about just this one example--his interview with Maria Bartiromo almost a year ago. OK, and then there was this, and this.

Edited interview here. Follow up call story here.