Insightful, tastefully written opinion criticizing the McCain campaign's insistence that Barack Obama would bring socialism to the United States if elected. It's free of the snarky language and silly puns that mark so much of the opinion about this election that we've seen lately.

Outstanding analysis of recent claims by the McCain campaign that Obama is a 'socialist'. The author expertly debunks these claims based on extensive factual information from multiple sources, including this quote from Sarah Palin herself, speaking about how she 'redistributes the wealth' in the State of Alaska: "we’re set up, unlike other states in the union, where it’s collectively Alaskans own the resources. So we share in the wealth when the development of these resources occurs." Case closed.

Hertzberg does a brilliant job compiling the long, sad string of outrageous campaign claims into an insightful display of the uninformed hypocrisy they reflect.

Short and to-the-point, unlike so many New Yorker articles. The author understand, as should every American, that socialism has been implemented to relatively good effect in many parts of the world, including here. Whatever one's beliefs, it should be clear that Barack Obama's contribution to socialism in America is likely to be very small.

Amusing, especially the last paragraph. But, what nobody explores is whether the socialist menace still has the same fear factor it did during the McCarthy years. Every article I've read focuses, as this one does, on whether or not the charges are true. Few make the comparisons between what the McCain campaign says now, and what they said about it earlier, as this one does. So it gets points for historical research, as well as the stylish writing the New Yorker is famous for.