Ever hear of Stuart Chase?

Stuart Chase was an MIT trained economist and engineer who was active in progressive politics throughout his career and until his death in 1985.  He advocated socialism, eugenics, and was an early admirer of Stalin's Soviet Union's centralized planning and control of the nation's economy.

His political viewpoints were best defined and captured in his 1942 book, The Road We Traveled', about a new political paradigm that he termed 'X' which was based on 18 conditions that he saw as needed for the future of a postwar America....

1. A strong centralized government
2. An executive branch of government growing at the expense of the legislative and judicial branches
3. Control of banking, credit, and security exchanges by the government
4. The underwriting of employment by the government either through armaments or public works
5. The underwriting of social security by the government - old age pensions, unemployment, etc
6. The underwriting of food, housing, and medical care by the government
7. The use of deficit spending to finance these underwritings
8. The abandonment of gold in favor of managed currencies
9. The control of foreign trade by the government
10. The control of natural resources by the government
11. The control of transportation by the government
12. The control of energy sources by the government
13. The control of agricultural production by the government
14. The control of labor organizations
15. The enlistment of the youth in youth corpsd devoted to health, discipline, community service, and ideologies consistant with those of the government authorities
16. Heavy taxation with special attention to the estates and incomes of the wealthy
17. Control of industry without ownership
18. State control of communications

Look at this list of the goals that Chase saw as the goals for a postwar America to achieve and implement.  Do any of them look familiar? 

Then consider the name of the book...and the name of the 17 minute slickly produced film just released last week by the Obama Campaign - "The Road We've Traveled".... which recaps the 'achievements' of the President during his first three years in office - including the steps he took in response to the financial crisis, the recession, healthcare and banking reform, and getting Osama Bin Laden while asking for another 4 year term to finish Obama's goal of 'fundamentally changing' the United States.

Coincidence?