Lou Dobbs: Obama slogan tied to 'Marxists and socialists and communists'

Fox Business host Lou Dobbs on Tuesday issued a breaking "news alert" that President Barack Obama's latest campaign slogan "has ties to Marxism and socialism."

In a 7-minute video released Monday, the Obama campaign unveiled its new slogan, "Forward," which has obvious similarities to MSNBC's slogan, "Lean Forward."

Conservative newspaper The Washington Timesnoted that the word had "a long and rich association with European Marxism."

"There have been at least two radical-left publications named 'Vorwaerts' (the German word for 'Forward')," the Times' Victor Morton wrote. "One was the daily newspaper of the Social Democratic Party of Germany whose writers included Friedrich Engels and Leon Trotsky. It still publishes as the organ of Germany's SDP, though that party has changed considerably since World War II. Another was the 1844 biweekly reader of the Communist League. Karl Marx, Engels and Mikhail Bakunin are among the names associated with that publication."

Morton went on to also connect the word to Soviet propaganda.

Breitbart.com's Joel Pollak found that the word was tied to Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, the German Social Democratic party, Benito Mussolini, Joseph Stalin and China's communist Chairman Mao Zedong.

"The Obama campaign apparently didn't look backwards into history when selecting its new campaign slogan -- or maybe they did," Dobbs observed Tuesday. "That's because 'Forward' has a very long history with Marxists and socialists and communists."

"Now, let's be clear before the email starts and all the comments. I'm not saying anybody's a communist. I'm not saying anybody's a Bolshevik. I'm just saying the word has an interesting, interesting background," the Fox Business host insisted.

"Curious choice, interesting choice," he added innocently. "We just wanted to share with you some of the background."

As Think Progress pointed out, "Forward" is also the state motto of Wisconsin, where Republican Scott Walker is facing a recall election as governor.

Watch the video below from Fox Business' Lou Dobbs Tonight, broadcast May 1, 2012.

(h/t: Media Matters)