Radical-in-Chief: PJTV Interviews Stanley Kurtz (Part One)

What does Barack Obama believe in? Who are his political allies? How did he meet them? What networks did Obama use and create on his rise to power? What is the current relevance of Obama’s beliefs, alliances, and political networks on his policy and tactical choices as president of the United States?

Author Stanley Kurtz set out to answer many of these questions during the 2008 presidential campaign, only to find himself directly targeted by the Democratic Party and the Obama campaign. It was evident at the time that both, and Obama himself, sought to hide much about his past. Now, two years later, Kurtz has completed his research into the young president’s past and current associations. The result is Radical-in-Chief: Barack Obama and the Untold Story of American Socialism. I finished reading the book last week, and found it extremely informative and deeply disturbing. Stanley Kurtz is among the most meticulous and thoughtful researchers writing on political topics, and here he has done a thorough job of sifting through the archives of major figures in American socialist groups and fronts, thousands upon thousands of pages of everything from personal correspondence to meeting announcements and fliers and everything in between, to establish Obama’s likely introduction to hard edged socialism in the early 1980s through his continuing alliances with socialist groups and figures today.

PJTV’s Richard Pollock recently interviewed Kurtz about Radical-in-Chief, and about what Obama’s socialist and community organizer ties mean to his presidency and to the country. Here is the first of three segments of Pollock’s interview with Stanley Kurtz.