Tales from the Trail

Just as Republicans have been trying to tar President Barack Obama and his fellow Democrats as socialists, guess who’s coming to lunch on Capitol Hill?

None other than Mikhail Gorbachev — the last leader of the Union of Soviet SOCIALIST Republics.

Gorbachev, in town to speak at a Woodrow Wilson Center forum on the evolution of Russia’s constitution, will join on Thursday Senate Democrats at one of their weekly closed-door luncheons where he is expected to give his perspective on international affairs.

Some Republicans have been hurling the “socialist” epithet at Obama, complaining that his big-spending economic stimulus plan, Wall Street bailouts and moves to expand the federal government’s role into health care, while also proposing tax hikes for the wealthy, were signs that he’s abandoned the capitalist system that is reeling from a global economic meltdown.

Gorby, as he was affectionately known in the late 1980s as he opened his failing country to market reforms, is a Nobel Peace Prize winner who joins an interesting list of past guests at the Senate Democrats’ lunch. Others have included Republican Vice President Dick Cheney (sometimes dubbed “Darth Vader”) and Rupert Murdoch, the global media tycoon who has strong conservative credentials.

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. – There was a sharp exchange among patrons during Barack Obama‘s visit to a barbecue restaurant on Sunday, highlighting the strong emotions the U.S. presidential race is stirring in the final weeks of the campaign.

Obama stopped by Cape Fear BBQ in Fayetteville, North Carolina, to pick up some chicken, collards and baked beans and court voters in this traditionally Republican state.

Some patrons cheered his arrival while others looked on with curiosity and surprise. One woman yelled, “Socialist, Socialist, Socialist — get out of here.” Obama was across the room at the time and did not appear to hear Diane Fanning, 54, who was among several patrons who had just come by after services at the local Presbyterian church. She said she was annoyed that the Illinois senator had stopped in at the restaurant that she regularly visits.