Posted on 05/07/2007 1:25:24 PM PDT by ricks_place
DISILLUSIONED supporters of President George W Bush are defecting to Barack Obama, the Democratic senator for Illinois, as the White House candidate with the best chance of uniting a divided nation.
Tom Bernstein went to Yale University with Bush and co-owned the Texas Rangers baseball team with him. In 2004 he donated the maximum $2,000 to the president’s reelection campaign and gave $50,000 to the Republican National Committee. This year he is switching his support to Obama. He is one of many former Bush admirers who find the Democrat newcomer appealing.
Matthew Dowd, Bush’s chief campaign strategist in 2004, announced last month that he was disillusioned with the war in Iraq and the president’s “my way or the highway” style of leadership – the first member of Bush’s inner circle to denounce the leader’s performance in office.
Although Dowd has yet to endorse a candidate, he said the only one he liked was Obama. “I think we should design campaigns that appeal, not to 51% of the people, but bring the country together as a whole,” Dowd said.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
Sure thing. Now let me see, how did those C-SPAN seminar calls go? “I’m a lifelong Republican but I’m voting for Kerry this year...” You betcha. It’s a landslide. Momentum is building. Whatever.
Good one!
I agree with you but it should be pointed out the article did say Republicans were defecting to Obama, not conservatives. They are in many cases not the same.
Wow, this guy gave money to Blinken, the guy who ran for the Senate in an overwhelmingly Republican state a few years ago (was it against Larry Craig in Idaho?), and he gave money to “white interloper” David Yassky in a black-majority NY congressional district. This guy is not just a Democrat, he’s a Democrat who gives to both major and minor Democrat candidates across the nation. I guess he gave to President Bush and the RNC because of his friendship with the President.
Is that a BS-ometer, or a BSO-Meeter? I can never get the correct pronumciation.
Says Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. I don't buy that crap.
LOL! Is that really in the article?? Too funny.
>> Even if one were to agree with you on that, choosing to support Obama only proves that person was never a conservative in the first place. I seriously doubt that anyone who formerly supported Bush would now support Obama (unless that individual has experienced a psychotic break with reality). <<
I didn’t make my point explicit enough; I was suggesting that Bush’s campaign director always was pretty liberal.
Obama appeals to the sorts who get excited about young candidates who look good in photos. It’s that Camelot-Kennedy thing.
I've run across plenty of socially conservative political opportunists who'll let the end justify the means.
They are liars... no real Republican would back a magic muzzie for President. Rinos all!
LLS
Oh here we go... “I was a lifelong Republican but now am voting for Obama...”
This is what they really meant to say:
“I was a lifelong Republican RINO but and now am voting for Obama...”
Actually, I don't believe the article is for our consumption. I think it is an attempt to persuade any undecided democrats who may suspect Hitlery is bit too divisive a candidate. This probably comes straight from the depths of Obama's war room and is for democratic consumption. No republican in their right mind could even invision this happening in a nightmare.
Republicans Flocking to Obama? Eh, Not Quite
I’m a bit underwhelmed by the usually-quite-reliable London Times’ headline, “Republicans defect to the Obama camp.”
Prominent Bush donors Tom Bernstein and John Canning, sure. But they’re big-time finance guys. While I’m sure they have their issue preferences and reasons to like Obama, one can’t help but wonder if there’s a bit of financial-base covering here. Business donations are coming in droves for Democrats now that they control the House and Senate. If Obama looks like he has a good shot to be the next president, why not get in on the ground floor?
Matthew Dowd was a former Democratic strategist who signed on with Bush quite a few years back, who appears to have had a falling-out with the president. (In the interim, he also had what must have been some intensely painful personal trials - a loss of a child and a divorce.) Anyway, the only way that he’s in the Obama “camp” is a word of praise in the New York Times.
Robert Kagan’s op-ed praising Obama’s foreign policy vision wasn’t so much of a shift for him, but an argument to Democrats that even their beloved anti-war candidate believes in using military force to defend U.S. interest and promote democracy. It’s not that Kagan’s abandoning his old views and shifting to Obama’s - he’s pointing out that the next president, no matter his party, will end up changing policy only around the margins.
http://hillaryspot.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OTdjNjkxZjdhN2I5MzUxODQ2MzVhNzZlNGU4NTRmNzA=
Tom Bernstein apparently does not have two brain cells to rub together.
Sheesh! HHC's husband.
Yeah, that was my thoughts. They never explain it. Funny how it’s always a liberal dem (or Rhino) that’s ‘the only one who can unite the country.’ They never mention you can thank the Clintons for dividing it in the first place.
We need Ron Paul in 2008. Check out his platform at RonPaul2008.com. He’s the only candidate who speaks his mind and acts on it. He’s starting to gain some amazing support!
Any Republicans defecting to any RAT candidate are not Republicans. Good luck to them.
Personally I think President Bush has appeased the democrats far too much as it is. That’s one reason I like Duncan Hunter. He doesn’t even pretend that he’ll be trying to make them happy and has pulled no punches in calling them on their attempts to surrender.
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