JAMES TARANTO: What Would Bulworth Do? Barack Obama’s Bizarre Movie Idol.

What would it mean for Obama to “go Bulworth”? We suppose we had a hint of it a month ago tomorrow, when he raged against the Senate for rejecting his calls for gun control, a subject on which he had cultivated a pretense of moderation during both his presidential campaigns.

Another example is a June 30, 2003, video of Obama, then a state senator, telling an AFL-CIO gathering: “A single payer health care plan, a universal health care plan. And that’s what I’d like to see.” Bulworth might have added: But you ain’t gonna get it from no insurance company.

Given the revelation that Obama fantasizes about going Bulworth, and the long-established fact that Obama has made statements consistent with the fictitious senator’s view that only socialized medicine will ever save the day, it seems to us some apologies are in order from those who insisted it was crazy to think Obama is a socialist. John Avlon should go first.

Let us be clear: We think it unlikely that the president will go Bulworth, and although we’re sure we’d enjoy the spectacle, we think it would be bad for the country if he did. An unhinged president would be dangerous to America and the world in a way that an unhinged senator would not.

That’s certainly true.