Good news for President Barack Obama: Hugo Chavez – Venezuela’s socialist president – is becoming a big fan of his American counterpart.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Friday called upon US President Barack Obama to follow the path to socialism, which he termed as the “only” way out of the global recession. “Come with us, align yourself, come with us on the road to socialism. This is the only path. Imagine a socialist revolution in the United States,” Chavez told a group of workers in the southern Venezuelan state of Bolivar…

Chavez said that people are calling Obama a “socialist” for the measures of state intervention he is taking to counter the crisis, so it would not be too far-fetched to suggest that he might join the project of “21st century socialism” that the Venezuelan leader is heading.

Don’t worry Chavez, Obama is doing just that.

It’s fascinating to see how progressive Obama truly is – and it’s even more fascinating when one realizes that so many moderates and even moderate conservatives voted for him last year. I expected him to be far more liberal than he was willing to admit – there were a great many signs to put it mildly – but that he was this far left comes somewhat as a surprise even to such an outspoken critic as me.

Of course Obama can’t publicly align himself with Chavez. He can’t call for a ‘socialist revolution.’ If he does, the American people will instantly rebel. So he pursues a different path: he’s simply bringing about socialist changes without actually calling them such. Smart politics, for now at least.