Obama was member of Socialist New Party in 1996

When Barack Obama ran for Illinois State Senate in 1996 he did not run as a Democrat. He ran as a New Party candidate. The New Party was an offshoot of the Democratic Socialist Party of America. This party also wanted to "spread the wealth" as Obama wants to do today.

This has been reported on CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight on Oct. 30 and Fox News Channel's Special Report on Oct. 9. This needs to be talked about more in the media. Obama is not who he says he is. He is a Socialist and this proves it.

Below is a video from FNC's Special Report:


When a video from the Oct. 30 Lou Dobbs Tonight is available it will be posted. For now, below is the transcript from this segment on Lou Dobbs Tonight (Courtesy of CNN and CNN: Headline News):

ANNOUNCER: This is LOU DOBBS TONIGHT. News, debate and opinion.

Here again, Mr. Independent, Lou Dobbs.

DOBBS: Welcome back.

My next guest says that in these final days of the election, voters need to take a much closer look at Senator Obama and determine whether they really know him. My next guest says Senator Obama may have a more radical agenda than voters truly realize.

Joining me now is Stanley Kurtz, contributing editor to the "National Review Online," senior fellow at the Ethics and Policy Center. Stanley Kurtz, joining us tonight from Washington, D.C. Stanley, good to have you with us.

STANLEY KURTZ, NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE: Lou, thanks for having me.

DOBBS: You've been - you've been looking into the Obama record for some time. Why has there been, in your judgment, so little interest on the part of the national media in looking into many of the issues that you have?

KURTZ: Well, Lou, I guess I have to put that down to a bias in the media. I think there's some pretty fundamental issues. For example, we're just now finding out there's a lot of evidence to indicate that Barack Obama was almost certainly a member of a pretty far-left-leaning third party, called the New Party.

Now when a presidential candidate had a close relationship with a third party, that's so fundamental. You would think the media would have to report that. So I have to put the failure to report that down to bias.

DOBBS: And when was he a member of the New Party?

KURTZ: This would be in 1996 when he ran for his first elective office, the Illinois state Senate. He was endorsed by the New Party. And all our evidence indicates that he was also a member of the New Party.

At a minimum, he worked very closely with the leadership of that party, which had a very redistributionist point of view, synchronizes very closely with what Senator Obama was saying on the 2001 radio broadcast the other day.

DOBBS: Let's listen in to Senator Obama, if we may. This is a campaigning in North Carolina yesterday, firing back at the label that Senator McCain has tried to hang on him, which is of course, socialist.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: Mainly he's called me a socialist for wanting to roll back the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, so we can finally give tax relief to the middle class.

I don't know what's next. By the end of the week, he'll be accusing me of being a secret communist because I shared my toys in kindergarten.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DOBBS: Well, you have to admit, Stanley, that's a pretty good line and very effective deflection. Do you believe -- and Senator McCain was asked this question, as to whether or not he believed Senator Obama is a socialist. And Senator McCain said no. Redistributionist, yes, but not a socialist.

What do you think?

KURTZ: I'd say that's about right. I think the labeling issue is a bit of a distraction. The important point is did Barack Obama is focused on the redistribution of income in a way that's much more radical than Senator McCain?

Certainly or even, I think, than mainstream American economics and political -- economic policy for the last 20 or 30 years. I mean, this is what matters. Whatever you want to call it.

Arguably, he's a socialist in the sense that he was once affiliated with a party that you could say was socialist. But again, it comes down to hair-splitting arguments that are a distraction from the fundamental point, which is that he's got a pretty far left- leaning economic inclination, which wants to redistribute wealth.

DOBBS: And redistributing wealth, redistributing wealth -- that is effectively, socialism. Is it not? So I'm sort of lost on this on why people are having a little trouble understanding what he's really talking about.

KURTZ: Well, Lou, in some technical definitions of socialism, we're talking about public ownership of the means of production.

DOBBS: Right.

KURTZ: And you know, nothing that Senator Obama has said openly advocates general public ownership of the means of production. But if you look at this New Party that he was so close to, they have something that verges on that position as perhaps a long-term agenda.

And in the short-term, they're trying in a pragmatic way, to move the economy closer and closer to that in a careful, incremental fashion. And you could certainly argue that Senator Obama has this incremental, radicalism.

He wants it in little pieces, little chunks. But the long-term goal, you could say, might be something close to socialism. But again, we would get distracted by the label and miss the basic radicalism of the point of view.

DOBBS: Stanley Kurtz, great to have you with us, thank you for joining us here.

KURTZ: Thanks for having me.

DOBBS: Up next, Michigan is now investigating cases of voter registration fraud. State's attorney general, Mike Cox, joins me.

And more contaminated food from communist China may be on its way to this country. We'll have that report.

And there's signs of the economy, as we are told, that is contracting, is in fact improving. What's going on? And what will be the impact on the election? Three of the country's best economic minds join me here next. Stay with us, we're coming right back.

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