Taegan Goddard's Political Wire

September 21, 2009

Boehner Backed into a Corner

After months of calling President Obama's policies socialist, House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) ultimately backed off when questioned by David Gregory on Meet the Press yesterday.

GREGORY: Do you really think the President is a socialist?

BOEHNER: Listen, when you begin to look at how much they want to grow government, you can call it whatever you want, but the fact is --

GREGORY: What do you call it though?

BOEHNER: This is unsustainable. We're broke.

GREGORY: That's fine. Do you think the President is a socialist?

BOEHNER: No!

GREGORY: Okay. Because the head of the Republican Party is calling him that.

BOEHNER: Listen, I didn't call him that, and I'm not going to call him that.

Here's the video clip courtesy of Think Progress:

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Taegan D. Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country, including the Washington Post, USA Today, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer and Christian Science Monitor.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

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