Obamacons v.s. McClintonians

Jesse Walker already blogged about Bill Weld's Obama epiphany, and I blogged Sunday's Colin Powellgasm, but the Wall Street Journal names the other prominent Republicans who are (figuratively speaking) carving the "B" into their faces.

On Thursday, former Minnesota Gov. Arne Carlson endorsed Obama at the state capitol. "I think we have in Barack Obama the clear possibility of a truly great president," he said. "I would contend that it's the most important election of my lifetime."

Scott McClellan, a former spokesman for President George W. Bush, also endorsed Obama Thursday. USA Today reported that McClellan told CNN in a taping to be aired this weekend that Obama has "the best chance of changing the way Washington works."

Ken Adelman, a prominent conservative on foreign policy matters announced his support for Obama on Tuesday, telling the New Yorker that his decision was based on temperament and judgment.

All that and Charles Fried, who broke with the McCain campaign over the choice of that Tina Fey impersonator as a running mate. And this comes after former Sen. Lincoln Chafee (RI), former Rep. Jim Leach (IA) and soon-to-be-former Rep. Wayne Gilchrist (MD) endorsed Obama.

I think this is a legitimately big story. When the Jeremiah Wright scandal broke, I thought Obama had lost the image that brought him this far: that of the post-racial moderate who saw beyond party. Story after story has broken since then about his ties to the left-wing New Party, his saintly status among ACORN members, his slumber parties with Bill Ayers, and so on, and so on.

And yet Republican moderates are convinced that Obama is the more sensible choice than Maverick John McCain. This is striking: Obama may be the most liberal Democratic candidate in 36 years, but no prominent Democrats have endorsed McCain. Joe Lieberman? You can write off his endorsement as Senate clubbyness and the bitterness of a guy who was literally purged from the Democratic Party two years ago. (Plus, the guy lost a popularity contest to Dick Cheney.) After that, the McCain endorsers are distinguished by their silliness.

- Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild, a multimillionaire friend of the Clintons who endorsed McCain on the grounds that Obama is a… wait for it… elitist.
- Debra Bartoshevich, a Wisconsin Hillary Clinton delegate who is bitter that Hillary did not win the nomination. She even starred in a TV ad.

- John Coale, the husband of Greta Van Susteren who resents the Democrats "being taken over by the moveon.org types."
- Harriet Christian, a big-haired Democrat who protested the DNC meeting that assigned Michigan and Florida delegates, telling reporters that Obama was "an inadequate black man."

All of these people have been invited to official McCain events, as if they mattered. It's really striking, considering that in 2004 Democrats were begging McCain to join the Democratic ticket.

Comments

[Tacos mmm...]

Weigel is a partisan shill for the Democrat party. Drink!

[joe]

Aw, dude, take down that "figuratively speaking."

I am totally using that term.

[joe]

John Coale. Not Joan.

[LGF Fan]

They're all SOCIALISTS!!!

[Mad Max]

This is the kind of Punch-and-Judy stuff you can get on the Media Formerly Known as Mainstream. Factor x applies to both candidates, but it's worse for candidate A than for candidate B because blah blah blah.

Thus, both Obama and McCain have supporters with criminal/terrorist backgrounds (making Dr. Paul's supporters look mainstream), so we are treated to discussions of the relative merits of Ayers and Liddy.

"Well, at least Ayers didn't work for the Nixon administration!"

"Oh, yeah? At least Liddy has a cooler hairstyle!"

"Oh, yeah? Well, you're a doodyhead!"

"Am not!"

"Are, too!"

[dhex]

but liddy does have a cooler hairstyle.

[joe]

Barry Goldwater's granddaughter endorsed Hussein, because of her disgust at what the Republican Party has become.

Socialist.

[BDB]

So I giess if Ashley Todd is any indication, McCain supporters are getting emo over this election.

[dlinguist]

I figured it would be a matter of time before Right Wing Intellectuals would see they have more in common with Left Wing Intellectuals than with the mob that the Rovians have been stirring up with their tactics all these years. From that mob rise, empowered, people like Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann. All sorts of anti-intellectuals who derisively call the ivy league intelligentsia "elite."

At some point the Ivy League Conservatives had to start feeling eerily conspicuous, or at least uncomfortable. They know documents like the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were not created by those who despise reason, study, education and intelligence. Welcome to the new Enlightenment.

[Don the libertarian Democrat]

I've already agreed to Nick Gillespie's characterization of my support for Sen. Obama as magical thinking, or something like that. What more do you want? And don't you believe in magic?

[Invisible Finger]

Our faith-based system of government continues unabated.

[Russ 2000]

They're all SOCIALISTS!!!

So what? Even in a shitty democracy people should get what they want.

The majority wants socialism. And they'll get it good and hard.

[joe]

BDB | October 24, 2008, 3:45pm | #

So I giess if Ashley Todd is any indication, McCain supporters are getting emo over this election.

Why, God, why?!?

[Eddie Willers]

Who is John Galt?

[GG]

Barry Goldwater's granddaughter endorsed Hussein, because of her disgust at what the Republican Party has become.

Barry Jr. gave her a good scolding.

I just don't get all these self-proclaimed "libertarians" endorsing Obama. Is handing the Obama-Pelosi-Reid triumvirate a mandate really the message they want to send to the GOP?

What about Bob?

[Asharak]

Many Reasonoids have no problem with Bob Barr, GG.

But I have been told by more than one Republican that a vote for Barr is also a vote for Obama.

[mporcius]

Its a good bet that Obama is going to be America's new secular saint, joining JFK and MLK. In ten or twenty years everywhere you go you will be seeing statuses of him, ordinary people will have his photo on their walls, his face will be on money, etc. He will become a sort of symbol, practically beyond criticism. I suspect many of the conservatives and libertarians who are endorsing Obama are worried about being on the wrong side in the future's history books.

[Peter K.]

Correction: Joe Lieberman did NOT lose a "popularity contest" to Dick Cheney. He lost the "electoral college" contest to Cheney, while winning the popularity contest.

[R C Dean]

I just don't get all these self-proclaimed "libertarians" endorsing Obama.

Me neither. I fully understand and participate in disgust at the Republican Party, and disdain for John McCain, but why on earth would someone who thinks (finally) the Republicans have strayed from their small-government roots express that by supporting Obama?

That's like saying your fat friend should go on the cookies and ice cream diet.

[BDB]

R C Dean--

What if you just really want to give the bastards a good kick in the nuts?

[Nutbush Shitty Limits]

What if you just really want to give the bastards a good kick in the nuts?

By punching yourself in the nuts?

[Doug]

I'd begun to think that I'd been transported into Bizarro World. Then I remembered:

"This country is a one-party country. Half of that party is called Republican and half is called Democrat. It doesn't make any difference. All the really good ideas belong to the libertarians." (Hugh Downs, Politically Incorrect, March 31, 1997.)

Now everything makes sense again.

[R C Dean]

What if you just really want to give the bastards a good kick in the nuts?

You've got one vote to cast. Casting it for anyone except the Republican gives him the same kick in the nuts, regardless of who you cast it for.

If you vote for Obama or a Total State Democrat, the message you are sending to the Republicans is that, if they want your vote, they need to amp up their support for the Total State. Is that really what you want them to take away from this election?

[jasno]

I guess a lot of us have done the math and think that the damage Obama will inflict will be less severe than the damage McCain will inflict. So rather than do the right thing, we're doing what we see is the practical thing - voting for Obama.

Sure, he's a big government liberal. But now that we've seen a big government 'conservative', those big government liberals don't seem so bad.

Honestly, if I had to choose between European 'socialism' and 4 more years of Bush(sure, McCain's not Bush), (granted my limited knowledge of Europe) I'd choose to move. Why continue to pay taxes to a government that, at least in my mind, has done more to diminish the cause of liberty than any other in recent history?

I can certainly see why many libertarians support McCain or even Barr :). It's not a black and white choice. But the political math I'm using compels me to vote for Obama.

[Paul]

- John Coale, the husband of Greta Van Susteren who resents the Democrats "being taken over by the moveon.org types."

Had to do a double take on that one.

[GG]

If you vote for Obama or a Total State Democrat, the message you are sending to the Republicans is that, if they want your vote, they need to amp up their support for the Total State.

Exactly.

I can certainly see why many libertarians support McCain or even Barr :). It's not a black and white choice. But the political math I'm using compels me to vote for Obama.

But a vote for Barr is a vote for Obama! /GOP

[John Thacker]

Oh, you forgot to mention other Obamacons:
Sugar growers and other farmers who normally vote Republican, but are voting for Sen. Obama rather than Sen. McCain because McCain opposes the sugar tariff, sugar quotas, and the farm bill in general.

Hejl also said that Obama has never voted against the sugar program and supported the 2008 farm bill while McCain has consistently opposed the program and said that he agreed with President Bush's decision to veto the bill. Hejl described Obama's positions on farm policy as "ten times better" than McCain's.

Harsbargen said many sugar growers in the Red River Valley of Minnesota and North Dakota have become aware of specific positions "these two men take on our livelihood.." He concluded, "There are some [Republicans] who simply will not cross the aisle, but there has been a significant movement of some who understand McCain's positions will destroy our business."

Of course, the Fanjuls, with their customary hilarity, are split, since they like to buy a seat at the table no matter what happens.

[Anonymous Wanker]

So, the rats are leaving the sinking ship... Who on earth would have expected that?

[JB]

Why would Democrats endorse McCain? They already have their wet-dream socialist. Every Democrat is a socialist at heart.

[Obama troll]

I look forward to when the Obama administration imposes the Fairness Doctrine so that the Feds suhut down sites like this for discussing the messiah's socialism. You racist bastards, you!

[joe]

Guns over here, religion over there, antipathy to people who aren't like you down the hall.

Damn, it's bitter on this threads.

Heh heh heh.

[Nevets]

I have some info. on my latest blog entry about this subject. I made a list of R's who have put the hat in for Obama.

http://pdxnevets.blogspot.com/2008/10/r-for-d.html

[Apostate Jew]

"I guess a lot of us have done the math and think that the damage Obama will inflict will be less severe than the damage McCain will inflict. So rather than do the right thing, we're doing what we see is the practical thing - voting for Obama."

I heard Mark Steyn on the radio complaining that Obama wanted to make the USA like Scandinavia and thought, "Denmark, Norway and Sweden all seem like pretty nice places."

[MJ]

"Carlson said his party had strayed from the moderate philosophies of past Republican leaders such as Ohio Sen. Robert Taft and President Dwight Eisenhower."

What we are seeing is the moderate Republicans, having finally gotten their favorite Republican Senator the party's nomination attempting to frame McCain's presumed coming election loss in terms of "he was not moderate enough". This is so they can ignore that much of McCain's problem is that most GOP voters don't have much confidence that he'll advance what they believe. Hence, GOP voters have very little enthusiasm for the man at the top of the ticket. In politics, something beats nothing. Whether or there is actually any "there" there, Obama's voters believe he stands for something they can get behind. Moderate GOPism stands for...does anyone know?