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	<title>FrontPage Magazine &#187; Brendon S. Peck</title>
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		<title>Obama’s Base Problem</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2011/brendon-s-peck/obama%e2%80%99s-base-problem/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=obama%25e2%2580%2599s-base-problem</link>
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		<pubDate>Thu, 13 Oct 2011 04:16:08 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Brendon S. Peck]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Afternoon Edition]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Democratic Party]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Independents]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[poll numbers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[re-election]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=108406</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Dwindling support becomes a serious issue. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/barack_obama_lead_wideweb__470x32101.gif"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-108413" title="barack_obama_lead_wideweb__470x32101" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/barack_obama_lead_wideweb__470x32101.gif" alt="" width="375" height="256" /></a></p>
<p>In March 2009, just 3 months after Obama took office, liberal economist Paul Krugman claimed to be in “<a href="http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/21/despair-over-financial-policy/">despair</a>” over administration policy.  At this early stage, though, such a feeling was shared by few progressives.  Instead, in the “Age of Obama,” left-wing ascendency was expected.  And in the new president, they had found their champion.</p>
<p>Today, however, much has changed. Many leftists now doubt Obama’s fealty to their cause.  The &#8220;capitulation&#8221; to Republicans and the continuation of key Bush policies have even been characterized as <a href="http://www.blackcommentator.com/386/386_kir_obama_treachery_share.html">treachery</a>.  From their perspective, Obama’s ideological impurity and divergence from dogma is offensive.  The calls for a primary challenge are arguably an outgrowth of this.</p>
<p>Now, it is true that a <em>serious</em> challenge from the Left is unlikely and, therefore, it may be tempting to dismiss the discussion as ephemeral, even irrelevant.  That would be a mistake.  Its proponents include iconic liberal thinkers and academics like Gore Vidal and Cornell West.  Their involvement speaks to the high level of disillusionment felt among the very foot soldiers and activists Obama will need in 2012.  And many of them want to use the primary process to force Obama sharply leftward, lest progressivism be “<a href="http://www.thenation.com/article/163802/should-obama-face-challenge-democratic-primary?page=0,0">betrayed</a>” further.</p>
<p>Surely the committed Left’s frequent excoriation must trouble the White House. That their liberal constituency is decidedly more vocal in its criticism, its attacks more virulent and public, only undermines Obama’s fading re-election hopes.  Primary challenge or not, the president knows he can ill-afford a protracted fight with his base.  Not when his job approval suffers persistent erosion; not when the majority of voters, including an increasing number of Obama’s own supporters, disapprove of his handling of the economy and the country’s course heading; not when unemployment remains so high.</p>
<p>For the president, then, an inescapable trend of new lows and lost independents underscore his ineffectiveness and profound political vulnerability.  But among key democratic constituencies, support has fallen to a level which few could have expected.</p>
<p>Predictably, the White House refuses to publicly acknowledge the corrosion of base support, maintaining that its core constituencies are “<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/moveonorg-other-liberals-grapple-with-idea-of-supporting-obamas-reelection-campaign/2011/09/16/gIQAiePQaK_story.html">mobilized behind the president</a>.”  Democratic consultant Jamal Simmons, too, echoes much the same theme.  The Left, he says, is “unified.”  These claims willfully ignore the evidence.  Consider:</p>
<p>In 2008, candidate Obama carried 56% of the women’s vote.  Today, however, just 41% approve.  In the Jewish community, the president once enjoyed an 83% approval rating; it has since dropped to <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-05/obama-jewish-support-ebbs-in-key-swing-state-amid-economic-woes.html">54%</a>.  Among Latino voters, just 48% now approve—a 12-point decline since January.  Obama captured two-thirds of the Hispanic vote in 2008.</p>
<p>It is, however, Obama’s rating amongst African-Americans that should startle Democrats.  It was not but 5 months ago that more than 8 in 10 expressed their strong support.  Now only 58% strongly approve, according to a recent <em>Washington Post</em> poll.  Under Obama, African-Americans have not fared well.  Black unemployment stands at 16%.</p>
<p>But worse for the White House, there is a definable enthusiasm deficit within their party.    According to Gallup, only <a href="http://www.gallup.com/poll/149759/Democrats-Dispirited-Voting-2012.aspx">45%</a> are excited about voting in 2012.  In 2008, nearly 80% were.  Republicans, in contrast, are far more energized.  This cannot be welcome news.  In fact, even Ed Schultz, the leftist flamethrower on MSNBC, acknowledged the electoral consequences of a despondent base.  In a &#8220;<a href="http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2011/09/30/schultz_democrats_must_be_as_enthusiastic_as_republicans.html">red alert</a>&#8221; to Democrats, he warned that the party would be badly beaten unless its voters were equally motivated.  For Schultz, &#8220;sitting on the sidelines is not an option.&#8221; But for some, it seems, it is.</p>
<p>MoveOn, for example, a far-left organization that mobilized a surge of volunteers and votes for Democrats in 2008, now seems to have buyer’s remorse. Obama’s political decisions, lamented as not liberal enough, have compelled the group to reevaluate its stand with the president.  <a href="http://www.newsmax.com/InsideCover/obama-losing-left-voters/2011/10/04/id/413219">Justin Ruben</a>, MoveOn’s executive director, made plain the state of play.  Its members, he says, “are wondering how they can ever work for President Obama&#8217;s re-election, or make the case for him to their neighbors…”</p>
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		<title>Keeping Up with Van Jones</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2011/brendon-s-peck/keeping-up-with-van-jones/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=keeping-up-with-van-jones</link>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 08 Jul 2011 04:02:36 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Brendon S. Peck]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Afternoon Edition]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=98235</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The ousted Obama administration czar wonders what the rich are doing with his money.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Picture-5.gif"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-98236" title="Picture-5" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Picture-5.gif" alt="" width="375" height="256" /></a></p>
<p>Back in 2009, the public knew little about Van Jones.  Perhaps, if anything, we knew only that he was one czar among many in the Obama administration.  Like most czars, he did not need to be confirmed by Congress.</p>
<p>However, as more was learned about his radical background, Van Jones was exposed.  Americans were repulsed by what they heard.</p>
<p>With his <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/09/03/raw-data-van-jones-words/">hateful statements</a> and Communist views revealed, a personal history of radicalism emerged.  A left-wing goody bag assorted with an affinity for anarchism, anti-capitalism, Communism, <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/weblogs/back-story/2009/sep/03/green-jobs-czar-signed-truther-statement-in-2004/">trutherism</a> and, as Jones put it, “rowdy” Black Nationalism.</p>
<p>As the pressure grew, Van Jones was forced to resign as “green jobs” czar in the fall of 2009.  But he wasn’t finished.</p>
<p>Today, nearly two years removed from the White House, he continues to delight &#8220;progressives&#8221; with his brand of Robin Hood-style “justice.”</p>
<p>In a manner one would expect from a class warfare peddler and propagandist, Van Jones recently asserted that America was “robbed” and that “<a href="http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2011/07/05/van_jones_america_is_not_broke.html">somebody has <em>our</em> money</a>” (emphasis added).  Just who are the villains in this worn-out narrative?  Why, Wall Street and the wealthy.  This serves only to fuel class envy and the culture of entitlement.</p>
<p>Such rhetoric may seem little more than red meat for &#8220;Rebuild the Dream&#8221; conference goers—the event at which Mr. Jones spoke this month—but his calculated and oft-repeated charge is designed to influence the ill-informed.  For the left-minded, excoriating the rich or, more generally, capitalism, has long been in vogue.  It is sadly effective.</p>
<p>While class warfare will undoubtedly remain part of the narrative, radicals like Van Jones are not blind to the current political climate.  In fact, their adaption to it, whilst advancing their agenda, provides them with a much desired platform.  In the mold of <a href="http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individualProfile.asp?indid=2314">Saul Alinsky</a>, they know their true motives must be masked.  Until they achieve power, that is.</p>
<p>Jones himself employed this thinly veiled tactic, no doubt useful during his stint as Obama’s green jobs czar.  After all, it was a convenient front in his pursuit of Communist-inspired redistributive wealth policies and worse.  Just listen to his words:</p>
<p>On the “green economy”:  It would be &#8220;pushed&#8221; until it became “<a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/09/03/raw-data-van-jones-words/">the engine that transforms the whole society</a>,” and the entire capitalist system.  Capitalism, in his warped worldview, is an economic framework that advances “exploitation and oppression.”</p>
<p>To achieve a new system of “eco-capitalism,” the steps taken to achieve the “complete revolution” of the 1960s would be followed.  Not surprisingly, a key component centers upon the redistribution of wealth.</p>
<p>Note: One ought not forget that wealth redistribution has long been embraced by President Obama. ObamaCare, for instance, is a redistributive instrument. Indeed, so comfortable is he with an economic framework that “spreads the wealth around,” Obama once underscored the need for a <a href="http://newsbusters.org/blogs/p-j-gladnick/2008/10/27/will-msm-continue-ignoring-shocking-obama-redistribution-wealth-audio">constitutional re-interpretation to achieve this</a> end.</p>
<p>Indeed, despite the fact that some on the left have expressed displeasure with the President’s actions, they know his is a solid ally.</p>
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		<title>A Beatable Obama</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2011/brendon-s-peck/a-beatable-obama/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=a-beatable-obama</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2011/brendon-s-peck/a-beatable-obama/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 27 Jun 2011 04:00:49 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Brendon S. Peck]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Afternoon Edition]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=97103</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A competitive race is in store this election season. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/G100715obama426-127917561356418200.gif"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-97110" title="G100715obama426--127917561356418200" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/G100715obama426-127917561356418200.gif" alt="" width="375" height="275" /></a></p>
<p>Americans have grown weary of the flailing Obama economy.  So potent is the public’s displeasure, so deep the rejection of his failed policies, Obama’s support is fast eroding, notably among key constituencies he will need for 2012.</p>
<p>With the poll surge from Bin Laden’s death all but gone, and perpetually poor economic data to boot, even an <em>unnamed</em> Republican opponent defeats the president in <a href="http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2012/president/us/general_election_president_obama_vs_republican_candidate-1745.html">two of three</a> surveys released this month.</p>
<p>For a GOP field that is routinely derided as weak and unexciting—a leftist narrative—these polls, if anything, remind us that Americans are looking for a competent alterative, and that the race will be competitive.</p>
<p>A Republican candidate who offers a fiscally sound, pro-growth, jobs-centric agenda will provide a sharp contrast to this White House.  With a clear articulation of substantive ideas, conservatives should press their case.</p>
<p>The president’s job approval, once as high as 76%, continues to trend downward.  It stands now at <a href="http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/president_obama_job_approval-1044.html">47.7%</a>.  Significantly, Obama is losing ground among Hispanics, a key group he carried overwhelmingly in 2008.  And, among women, an AP poll found that only <a href="http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2011/06/23/ap_poll_economic_worries_pose_new_snags_for_obama_110335.html">48%</a> believe he deserves re-election, a drop of nearly 10 points from AP’s polling just last month.</p>
<p>Moreover, independent voters are abandoning Obama in droves.  This vital voting bloc has long since lost faith in the president’s chosen course heading, one that will transform our nation into a ghost ship of centralization.</p>
<p>A recent Bloomberg National Poll clearly reflects this precipitous drop in Independent support.  Less than one-fourth, <a href="http://media.bloomberg.com/bb/avfile/rLCZb_QxP4kE">only 23%</a>, said they would vote for Obama in 2012.  The same poll found that just 30% of all voters were “certain” to support his re-election; <em>66% said the country was on the wrong track</em>.</p>
<p>An unconscionable lack of presidential leadership, bad policy, ballooning debt and a sputtering economy, best explains such widespread pessimism.  For many, America is fast becoming a nation unrecognizable.</p>
<p>Indeed, <a href="http://media.bloomberg.com/bb/avfile/rLCZb_QxP4kE">nearly 60%</a> of Americans currently disapprove of this administration’s handling of the economy.  More specifically, on jobs, the national debt and the federal deficit, voter reproach is rising.  These three key issues register above, or near, 60% disapproval.  Moreover, 80% of voters say “<a href="http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2011/06/23/ap_poll_economic_worries_pose_new_snags_for_obama_110335.html">the economy is in poor shape</a>.”  An unhealthy condition that is intolerable.</p>
<p>Despite these numbers, Americans have yet to see the president take a more active role, most recently in the debt limit negotiations that have now stalled.  Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) says Obama doesn’t have the “time” to go these meetings.  But now, he has no choice.  In fact, negotiations for a final debt deal have already forced Obama into the fray.  Voters, however, are skeptical about just what impact that will have on reducing debt.</p>
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		<title>An Administration&#8217;s Spin or Delusion?</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2011/brendon-s-peck/an-administrations-spin-or-delusion/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=an-administrations-spin-or-delusion</link>
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		<pubDate>Thu, 16 Jun 2011 04:21:27 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Brendon S. Peck]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=96157</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The head of the DNC points to a soaring economy that isn’t.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong> </strong></p>
<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/wasserman.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-96159" title="wasserman" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/wasserman.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="300" /></a></p>
<p>The news continues to get worse.  On jobs, housing, debt and energy, the American people are suffering under the weight of the Obama economy.  Yet, if you listen to the head of the DNC, Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), under Obama, Democrats “were able to turn this economy around.”  So laughable is this assertion that even a card carrying member of the mainstream media couldn’t hold back.  Stating the obvious, <em>Meet the Press</em> moderator David Gregory reminded Wasserman Schultz that “clearly the economy has not been turned around” and “Americans don’t believe that’s the case.”  Indeed, they don’t.</p>
<p>According to a recent Washington Post/Abc News poll, <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/07/us-poll-obama-idUSTRE7560UH20110607" target="_blank">nearly 60% of Americans disapprove of the president’s handling of the economy</a>.  Among young people (18-29), <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/prweb/20110615/bs_prweb/prweb8573040" target="_blank">another survey</a> found that only 31 percent approve—the very same voting bloc that Obama carried by 34 points in ’08.  But this should come as little surprise given his dismal economic record.</p>
<p>Nearly 14 million Americans are out of work today.  Long term unemployment is now worse than during the Great Depression. 2.1 million have given up looking for work.  Inflation is running at an annualized rate of 6.6%.  Our economy is wind-bound with an anemic growth rate of 1.8%.</p>
<p>When Obama took office, unemployment stood at 7.3%.  It is now 9.1%, <em>a 25% increase</em>.  Factor in the underemployed—that is, those who seek full time work but find only part-time employment—and the figure more than doubles, approaching 20% of the American workforce.</p>
<p>The national average for a gallon of gas was $1.83 on inauguration day.  Currently the average pump price is $3.76, a whopping 104% increase.  The president remains unwilling to expand drilling for new and existing energy resources here at home.  Instead, his policies weigh companies down with undo bureaucracy, moratoriums, permitoriums and regulation.  This is economically derelict.  To reduce cyclical consumer pain at the pump, expanding access to our known resources makes sense, and it would create jobs.</p>
<p>Our debt was 10.6 trillion in January 2009.  It is now 14.3 trillion, up 35% and ever rising.  So unsustainable is our mounting debt, so catastrophic the consequences, our very nation is at risk.  Remember that Standard and Poor’s (S&amp;P) reduced its long term outlook on U.S. debt to negative—a shot across the bow against the profligate spenders in Washington.</p>
<p>Americans have too long experienced the impact of reckless spending and borrowing.  Debt is a drag on job creation.</p>
<p>Yet, it is precisely more debt that the public will bear if Democrats have their way.  According to <em>The Hill</em>, Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) is preparing another spending package proposal because, in his words, “<a href="http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/165731-do-more-on-jobs-dems-tell-obama" target="_blank">We really do need some economic pump-priming by the federal government</a>.” <strong> </strong></p>
<p>Never mind that such a call betrays confusion and dissention among Democrats.  Wasserman Schultz would have us believe that the economy has turned around.  Senator Harkin, on the other hand, claims our struggling economy needs more government spending.</p>
<p>Well, Harkin is half right.  The economic outlook is grim—albeit thanks to the ruinous policies of the administration.  But Americans have already witnessed a failed 830 billion dollar stimulus that grew government but not the economy; the very same package that did not keep unemployment below 8%, as Obama claimed it would.</p>
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		<title>Cynthia McKinney: Gaddafi’s Useful Idiot</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2011/brendon-s-peck/cynthia-mckinney-gaddafi%e2%80%99s-useful-idiot/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=cynthia-mckinney-gaddafi%25e2%2580%2599s-useful-idiot</link>
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		<pubDate>Tue, 07 Jun 2011 04:09:09 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Brendon S. Peck]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[Continuing the pathetic and destructive tradition of fellow travelers. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/cynthia.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-95294" title="cynthia" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/cynthia.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="321" /></a></p>
<p>While Muammar Gaddafi grows ever more desperate as he loses key military support, former U.S. Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) is shamelessly serving as a propagandist for the Libyan tyrant’s regime.</p>
<p>Venomous remarks recently made by the former six-term congresswoman on Libyan state television were deeply disturbing, to say the least.  Among her many outbursts, she charged that America is spending “money on death, destruction and war.” The fact that these comments were broadcast on Libyan state television, which serves as Gaddafi’s mouthpiece, makes matters all the more reprehensible.</p>
<p>Yet such behavior by Cynthia McKinney should come as no surprise. It is, in fact, demonstrative of a definable historical pattern.  McKinney is part of a long Western leftist tradition of progressive sycophants traveling to adversarial lands in an effort to undermine America.</p>
<p>In 2009, for example, McKinney traveled to Libya and praised Gaddafi, calling him a “global leader” and thanking him for “<a href="http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/declaration-dignity-%E2%80%93-tripoli-statement">reaching out from Africa to the entire world</a>.”  As she fell over herself to laud this mass murderer, a man who is widely believed to have ordered the bombing of Pan-Am Flight 103, she equated America’s economic system with “bondage.”</p>
<p>After her most recent Libyan rendezvous, McKinney traveled to Iran for what was billed as an &#8220;anti-terrorism&#8221; conference.  There, she claimed to have been “<a href="http://yidwithlid.blogspot.com/2011/05/former-rep-cynthia-mckinney-in-iran.html">politically assaulted</a>” by American advocates of Israel during her time in Congress.</p>
<p>McKinney also propagated the anti-Semitic myth, widely believed in the Muslim world, that it is mandatory for U.S. Congress members to “pledge allegiance” to Israel.  Much like her longstanding assertion that the September 11th terrorist attacks were part of a U.S government conspiracy, such cancerous falsehoods are readily used by jihadists to garner support for their cause.</p>
<p>Historically, Communist regimes — like Islamofascists today —  positioned useful idiots like McKinney to their advantage.  Take, for example, the Soviet Union’s rapport with its Western sympathizers, who came searching for Utopia. Naïve, often willfully ignorant, even deceptive and self-deceptive, the West’s apologists for Soviet Russia were despised by the Communist regime, but nonetheless, were found ever so valuable.</p>
<p>As Joseph Stalin turned the prow of the totalitarian state deeper into the maelstrom of centralization, his purges and pecuniary polices laid the country to waste.  Conveniently for the dictator, notable Soviet apologists, like <em>New York Times</em> journalist Walter Duranty and ACLU founder Roger Baldwin, thought this suffering was tolerable, even needed.  And they used their considerable influence to propagate this view – or to make excuses for Stalin&#8217;s terror (when they actually admitted it existed).</p>
<p>Duranty is famous for his oft-repeated assertion that Stalin &#8220;could not make an omelet without breaking a few eggs.&#8221; This “omelet,” as we know, meant misery, famine and death for millions of innocent people.</p>
<p>Similarly, for Roger Baldwin, the Soviet Union was &#8220;<a href="http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individualProfile.asp?indid=1579">a great laboratory of social experimentation of incalculable value to the development of the world</a>.&#8221;  Stalin utilized Baldwin and other sympathetic leftists like him to spread Communist propaganda in the West and to strengthen his position at home.</p>
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