Bud – maybe you’re right re bottom-up – may make more sense to keep to a tight def of fascism…Still the Nietch connection makes me resist your point a bit – And it’s over if Rand liked Wagner! Just kidding…

Peter – you’re surly right re Obama’s knack for defining friends and enemies that MOST Americans agree on…-But that’s a sign of moral imagination and democratic insticnt’s…Sure He’s a liberal – and he’s out to press his agenda – but he doesn’t have a fanatical bone in his body! No fear no die!

Habu – FYI The IAF guy/s who mentored Obama had a little distance on their mentor Alinsky. And OBama, in turn, actually spelled out the limitations of the IAF model of Community organizing in the late 80s – There was a piece about all that in the New Republic during the campaign. Makes more sense to see O as King’s heir than Alinsky’s…O is always careful about taking up that mantle but he did famously – and prematurely – tell his IAF “rabbi” that the first book – “Parting the Waters” – of Taylor Branch’s trilogy on “American in the King years” – was HIS story…Good book – check it and you’ll see why the heroic traditions of Afro Am organzing would spoke to him…