Who would ever guess that a former Clinton team member, Dough Schoen, would find the OWS movement radical? Let’s remember that it was Team Clinton who partnered with the radical Republicans to deregulate Wall Street. Many of them later moved on to cushy and highly profitable jobs on Wall Street after Clinton’s term in office. Wall Street may have crashed during the Bush years, but we didn’t get there without the groundwork being laid before that time. Those decisions were radical changes from decades of policy that mostly worked, but Wall Street wanted more. Guess who paid the price for that mistake?

Tell me again who is “radical” and “out of touch” in this discussion?

What binds a large majority of the protesters together—regardless of age, socioeconomic status or education—is a deep commitment to left-wing policies: opposition to free-market capitalism and support for radical redistribution of wealth, intense regulation of the private sector, and protectionist policies to keep American jobs from going overseas. Sixty-five percent say that government has a moral responsibility to guarantee all citizens access to affordable health care, a college education, and a secure retirement—no matter the cost. By a large margin (77%-22%), they support raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans, but 58% oppose raising taxes for everybody, with only 36% in favor. And by a close margin, protesters are divided on whether the bank bailouts were necessary (49%) or unnecessary (51%).

NOTE FROM JOHN: Yeah, pretty crazy agreeing with the overwhelming majority of Americans that we should raise taxes on the rich, and sharing America’s ambivalence about the bank bailout. Even 52% of Republicans support tax increases on the rich. And two-thirds of all rich people support increased taxes on themselves. So actually, OWS doesn’t represent the radical left, Doug Schoen represents the radical right. Any Democrat who would like to go the way of the now dearly departed Blue Dogs in the House should listen to Schoen’s perpetual nonsense carefully as they plan their imminent retirement.

And finally, I wonder what Secretary Clinton thinks of her own pollster suggesting that it’s radical to believe that the government has a moral responsibility to provide its citizens with health care.