Barack Obama and the Democrats are clearly opposed to free speech. They are strongly in favor of re-instituting the mis-named broadcasting "Fairness Doctrine." They hope that would get rid of their mortal enemies, Rush Limbaugh and Fox News. Then there is the experience of Joe the plumber. (One criticism of Joe I heard was that his name is actually Samuel, not Joe; well, actually Joe is his middle name and for some unknown but no doubt nefarious reason he goes by his middle name rather than his first name.) Here is a blurb on this subject from "Instapundit:

* Free speech. Remember that? We’ve already had a taste of how Obama deals with speech he doesn’t like: he tries to shut it down. When Stanley Kurtz went on Milt Rosenberg’s Extension 720 radio show in Chicago, Obama’s minions followed Obama’s order to “get in [the] face” of opponents and flooded the phone lines with protests.

There have been a lot of disgusting things about this campaign. The hysterical attack on Sarah Palin and her family was a new low. But for my money the very worst episode (so far) has been the attack on Samuel “Joe the Plumber” Wurzelbacher. Joe asked Obama an embarrassing question. More to the point, he elicited a momentary lapse into candor from Obama, a moment, moreover, that was caught on tape, broadcast and rebroadcast, and that John McCain seized (or at least maneuvered with rhetorical paws) in his last debate with Obama: It’s not that I want to punish you for your success, Obama said, it’s just that I want to spread the wealth around. Joe the Plumber assumed that the money he made was his money. That was hist first mistake. Obama-Pelosi-Reid do not like private property (except their own): they think the government should take more and more of it and spread it around.

Poor Joe. Talk about “the politics of personal destruction”! Turns out the Clintons were rank amateurs at that game. The roof fell in on Joe. The Obama smear machine went to work. Did you know that when he lived in Arizona in 2000, his driver’s license was suspended? Did you know that he isn’t a licensed plumber? (What? He works for a licensed plumber and doesn’t need a license for the sort of residential work he does? Don’t confuse the story!) Did you know that he owes back taxes (OK, it’s a pittance, but, hey, we’re trying to assassinate someone’s character here). Joe isn’t running for anything. He is an ordinary working stiff. He was throwing a football around in his yard with his son when Obama walked by and he took the opportunity to ask a sharp question. The candidate gave an answer that was just a little too candid. Result: Joe must be publicly pilloried and the focus must be moved firmly from Obama’s answer to Joe’s alleged misdemeanors. A few days ago, Joe spoke to Mike Huckabee on Fox TV. “I asked a question. When you can’t ask a question to your leaders anymore, that gets scary. That bothers me.” As well it should. It should bother you, Dear Reader, too.

Obama committed the classical political gaffe. According to Michael Kinsley, a gaffe is when a politician unwittingly blurts out the truth. (Joe Biden is the master of the gaffe, but the press covers for him because, well, everyone knows how Joe Biden is.) Obama inadvertently revealed to Joe the plumber that he is a socialist who plans on redistribution of wealth. Thus Joe the Plumber must be destroyed, and Obama's minions in the press set about to do it. We now know more about Joe the Plumber's private life and beliefs than we do about Obama's.