predecessor. george w. bush was a socialist? professor gingrich recently explained that president obama is indeed a socialist. quote, in the tradition of the french soberists or the italian socialists or the german socialists. gingrich offered a simpler measure of obama's socialist. >> i think he represents a strain of left-wing, big government. government is smart, you're stupid. government should decide everything. you're not capable of it. but if you're asking the question, does he think the overwhelming dominance should be government? and does he think government is smarter than the rest of us? the answer is yes. >> this from a man named newt. where do to begin. the sneering "we know better than you" of the bush/cheney administration tends to leap to mind. president bush's achievement, his war in iraq, which was described by andrew card as akin