Decades ago, Winston Churchill observed that “the inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.” His words apply well to the choice in the 2012 presidential election.

Note, for example, how the young black Democratic mayor of Newark, N.J., Cory Booker, was strongly repudiated by the Obama campaign, including the president himself, when he insolently suggested that Bain Capital, the investment firm once headed by Mitt Romney, might actually do positive things.