Big names join defections from Republican campSome of my lefty mailing list colleagues find this all pretty significant -- including the defections of Christophers Hitchens and Buckley, animalculae whom the Guardian didn't deign to notice. Here's Comrade F.:Joel Haugen, a Republican fighting a tough congressional race against the Democrats in Oregon, has fallen out with his party. The reason: his surprise endorsement of Barack Obama for the presidency....
Haugen is just one of many Republican politicians, dubbed Obamicans, who have defected to Obama. The latest high-profile desertions include Scott McClellan, President George Bush's former press secretary, who endorses Obama in a CNN programme to be broadcast this weekend, and William Weld, the one-time Republican governor of Massachusetts....
Last weekend, Bush's former secretary of state Colin Powell publicly backed the Democratic candidate in Obama's biggest Republican catch so far.
[R]emember this is just the latest wave of defections, leaving aside Powell, Buckley, Hitchens, and the rest. Worth remembering that almost all of these people were FOR Bush in 2000.And a response:
[Comrade F.] makes a very good point about the changing political climate in the U.S.Changing political climate? Really? What reason do we have to think that any of these folks has changed his or her views? Is it not plain that they are simply betting on the favorite horse? And is it not equally plain that in the light of their unchanged views, they're perfectly OK with Obama?
What does this tell us about Obama?
Comments (7)
Don't confuse the argument with sound logic, Michael!
Posted by Peter Ward | October 26, 2008 6:20 PM
Posted on October 26, 2008 18:20
This is totally unrelated to the post, but I need to express my suffering somewhere. So far, I've done an exemplary job avoiding media discussion of the election. I've even managed to avoid all but one televised debate. Well, it seems my punishment has been delivered--I have faulty active monitor speaker connected to my computer that, do to an electrical issue, picks up the NPR coverage of the election "debates" loud and clear (are there any audio engineers reading who can help?).
Posted by Peter Ward | October 26, 2008 7:04 PM
Posted on October 26, 2008 19:04
What does this tell us about Obama? That he's about change that all the crooks can believe in.
Posted by Lajany Otum | October 26, 2008 9:36 PM
Posted on October 26, 2008 21:36
Ben Montgomery 1819-1877 was the teachers pet too.
Posted by Son of Uncle Sam | October 27, 2008 5:17 PM
Posted on October 27, 2008 17:17
Michael -
It says the same thing that, for example, The Black Agenda Report has been telling us for months: Obama is a sly fox who works for the same folks Bush does. Next question?
Ummm, Peter! Have yuh tried pullin' the bloody plug outta the wall?
Be at peace
Posted by ddjango | October 29, 2008 9:18 PM
Posted on October 29, 2008 21:18
this site may be into the johnny
one note zone
on this point
been reading about the
plow brings rain
noodlery of the great western yeomanic infestation
what the plow brought was
drought misery and then ..uncle sam's irrigation canals
let us pray for a miracle
for irrigation canals now
not after 5 years of hideous
senseless low voltage american misery
let's pray
there's a fuckin'
morph
lets pray that
into that eloquent
briary of ivy elite dither
now engrossing
the mind of the magic negro
will come
a sudden burst of deeper insight
and that ever after
his head will sing to him
like a heavenly choir
"go for it barry
spend baby spend
spend baby spend "
make that specific:
"pile
trillions upon trillions"
and lets while we got Clio's ear
make his sauline moment
come sometime b4
the snows of january
Posted by op | October 30, 2008 12:47 PM
Posted on October 30, 2008 12:47
Slightly OT, but I rather enjoyed watching the Colbert Report the other night, when Steven Colbert brought up McCain/Palin red-baiting and their denouncing Obama as "socialist". Without skipping a beat, he introduced his next guest, Mr. Brian Moore, Socialist Party candidate for President, and asked him if Obama was, indeed, a socialist? Short answer: No.
Of course, in a healthy Democracy, Mr. Moore would be on CNN and able to debate John McCain directly about the relative merits of socialist political economy, but instead the best we can do is give him a minute or so of airtime on a fake news satire program, for entertainment purposes only.
Anyway, I went ahead and early-voted...and was pleasantly surprised to be given the option of a paper ballot (which I noticed most voters were picking over electronic), which was a relief because I wasn't looking forward to figuring out how to vote for a write-in candidate on an electronic voting machine; With the paper ballot I was able to cast my vote for Cynthia McKinney/Rosa Clemente (Green Party ticket) without further hassle. In local judicial races I voted straight-ticket Libertarian, and for everything else I went with the D's. I predict absolutely 100% of my chosen candidates will lose their respective races (I live in North Texas). Anyway, my perfunctory civic duty is done for the season.
Posted by JJR | October 31, 2008 10:57 AM
Posted on October 31, 2008 10:57