It seems that all is not well on the right-wing front. While the MSM and the blogger-sphere have been obsessing about Democratic unity, Republican unity has been falling apart.
Poor McCain is facing some challenges not only from his most charismatic democratic rival, but from the inner echelons of his party. All sorts of rumblings have been coming from his own colleagues on the hill, conservative intellectual symbols, bloggers and policy makers.
Follow me after the jump, and I will share the good news.
My prognostication of the McCain resistance movement from with in the GOP is based on two articles offered in The Hill and The New republic, each offering indications and testimonials of factional GOP displeasure with McCain.
As per The Hill,
At least 14 Republican members of Congress have refused to endorse or publicly support Sen. John McCain for president, and more than a dozen others declined to answer whether they back the Arizona senator.
The common wisdom has always been "Democrats follow their hearts, republicans fall in line", not when it comes to McCain apparently. It seems even republican have a line which they will not cross, and McCain is it.
Republican members who have not endorsed or publicly backed McCain include Sens. Chuck Hagel (Neb.) and Jeff Sessions (Ala.) and Reps. Jones, Peterson, John Doolittle (Calif.), Randy Forbes (Va.), Wayne Gilchrest (Md.), Virgil Goode (Va.), Tim Murphy (Pa.), Ron Paul (Texas), Ted Poe (Texas), Todd Tiahrt (Kan.), Dave Weldon (Fla.) and Frank Wolf (Va.).
What reasons could these republicans have with their party nominee:
Immigration ( Walsh), the War (Hagel, Jones and Gilchrest), healthcare, Energy policy (Peterson), campaign finance reform.. just to name a few. And a special mention, by senate members, for his role in the "Gang of 14" deal on judicial nominations.
Going on records as to their reasons for withholding their support are:
Rep. John Peterson (R-Pa.) expressed major concerns about McCain’s energy policies and Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.) cited the Iraq war.
However, I have a feeling that the reasons for republican ambivalence may be much more basic.
Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.), who has been sharply critical of McCain on immigration, told The Hill in February, "I don’t like McCain. I don’t like him at all."
snip
However, Tancredo told ABC News this week he will reluctantly vote for McCain.
The McCain camp seems to think that this lack of enthusiasm on behalf of the Republican establishment towards their nominee could be a blessing that would only confirm his maverick status.
McCain campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds said, "John McCain has strong support among Republicans and even some others in the Congress for taking principled stands. While his support is rock solid, it also shouldn't be a surprise that Sen. McCain's bold record of independence on the issues isn't appreciated by every single Republican on Capitol Hill."
The New Republic however, contradicts that rose coloured view , of the McCain camp, by offering a different take- It seems Colin Powell is not the only conservative touting Obama's qualities.
In the article, Mr. Right- The Rise of Obamacons, Bruce Bartlett describes a feeling within the conservative movement as follows:
A broad swath of the movement has been in open revolt against George W. Bush--and the Republican Party establishment--for some time. They don't much care for the Iraq war or the federal government's vast expansion over the last seven-and-a-half years. And, in the eyes of these discontents, the nomination of John McCain only confirmed the continuation of the worst of the Bush-era deviations from first principles.
According to TNR, a so called Obamacon movement began to take shape following a New Yorker profile of Obama in which his interviewer, Larissa MacFarquhar, described Obama as an Edmund Burke style politician-
"In his view of history, in his respect for tradition, in his skepticism that the world can be changed any way but very, very slowly, Obama is deeply conservative."
To wit Bartlett asserts:
Conservatives of almost all ideological flavors (even, gasp, some supply-siders) have been drawn to Obama--out of a genuine affection and a belief that he may actually better embody movement ideals than McCain.
According to Bartlett, the Obama campaign itself is not aware of the rising support for the candidate from within the republican population.
When I checked with it to ask for a list of prominent conservative supporters, the campaign seemed genuinely unaware that such supporters even existed.
Bartlett sites several conservative names among the Obama-admiration camp, by now I think we are all familiar with Andrew Sullivan's affinity to Obama, but I for one was surprised to find that David Friedman, son of Milton Friedman, Is supporting Obama on the basis that he sees Obama as more representative of his father's cause.
Among the notables mentioned in the article are, Scott Flanders CEO of Freedom Communications, who sees in Obama the only way of achieving the ultimate libertarian goals of withdrawing from Iraq and scaling back the Patriot Act. And the neo-con theorist Francis Fukuyama, who in an interview with the Australian newspaper The World Today said,
ELEANOR HALL: That is a big shift for you, isn't it? To go from a registered Republican voter to an Obama supporter.
FRANCIS FUKUYAMA: Yeah, but I think a number of people are doing that this year because I think the world is different at this juncture and we need a different foreign policy and there is this larger question about in American politics, I do think that we are at the end of a long generational cycle that began with Reagan's election back in 1980 and I think unless you have a degree of competition and alternation in power, certain ideas and habits are going to get too entrenched.
Other names mentioned include, Boston University professor Andrew Bacevich author of the "The American Conservative", Conservative bloggers Megan McArdle and Dorothy King, senior editor of The National Review Jeffrey Hart and it's former Publisher Wick Allison.
Why? you might ask, I certainly did. Why are these republicans and libertarians supporting Obama? What is that they see in one whom consider progressive? To answer that question I shall allow the republicans to speak for them selves:
Larry Hunter, former chief economist for the US Chamber Of Commerce:
in Hunter's view, is that Obama has the potential to "scramble the political deck, break up old alliances, and bring odd bedfellows together in a new coalition." And, what's more important, he views the Republican Party as a "dead, rotting carcass with a few decrepit old leaders stumbling around like zombies in a horror version of Weekend at Bernie's, handcuffed to a corpse." Unless the Republican Party is thoroughly purged of its current leadership, Hunter fears that it "will pollute the political environment to toxic levels and create a
Andrew Bacevich
"For conservatives, Obama represents a sliver of hope. McCain represents none at all. The choice turns out to be an easy one,"
Francis Fukuyama
"symbolizes the ability of the United States to renew itself in a very unexpected way."
Christine Allison, wife of Wick Allison, Who is, in her words, a disappointed republican said in The Dallas Morning News,
I want someone who speaks to the yearning and ideals of this generation. I want to look forward, not backward.
Barack Obama embodies a new world view. He speaks with candor and elegance against the kind of politics that have become so dispiriting – and for the kind of America I would like to see. As a man, I find Mr. Obama to be prudent, thoughtful, and courageous. His life story embodies the conservative values that go to the core of my beliefs.
So, What does this all mean? I prefer to see it as a massive convergence of American politics towards the only possible right choice. It no longer essential, to reasonable republicans, to vote their party. After 8 years of disillusionment, disappointment and downright criminality on the part of the Bush and Co, many of them are deciding to vote their conscience rather than their party. Due, in small part I think, to McCain's obvious flaws of temperament, understanding and most blatantly policy.
I truly believe that this election belongs to the democrats if they would reach out and take it. But there's something more, a chance to change the American vote forever. Just like Reagan created the more conservative "Reagan democrat", Obama can create a new era of the more Liberal "Obama Conservative".
Lets Get Out The vote people. This election is yours for the taking.