I'm a lifelong conservative activist and I'm backing Barack Obama

New York Daily News ^ | July 16th 2008, | LARRY HUNTER

[KLFuchs]

I'm a lifelong Republican - a supply-side conservative. I worked in the Reagan White House. I was the chief economist at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for five years. In 1994, I helped write the Republican Contract with America. I served on Bob Dole's presidential campaign team and was chief economist for Jack Kemp's Empower America.

This November, I'm voting for Barack Obama.

When I first made this decision, many colleagues were shocked. How could I support a candidate with a domestic policy platform that's antithetical to almost everything I believe in?

The answer is simple: Unjustified war and unconstitutional abridgment of individual rights vs. ill-conceived tax and economic policies - this is the difference between venial and mortal sins.

Taxes, economic policy and health care reform matter, of course. But how we extract ourselves from the bloody boondoggle in Iraq, how we avoid getting into a war with Iran and how we preserve our individual rights while dealing with real foreign threats - these are of greater importance.

John McCain would continue the Bush administration's commitment to interventionism and constitutional overreach. Obama promises a humbler engagement with our allies, while promising retaliation against any enemy who dares attack us. That's what conservatism used to mean - and it's what George W. Bush promised as a candidate.

Plus, when it comes to domestic issues, I don't take Obama at his word. That may sound cynical. But the fact that he says just about all the wrong things on domestic issues doesn't bother me as much as it once would have. After all, the Republicans said all the right things - fiscal responsibility, spending restraint - and it didn't mean a thing. It is a sad commentary on American politics today, but it's taken as a given that politicians, all of them, must pander, obfuscate and prevaricate.

Besides, I suspect Obama is more free-market friendly than he lets on. He taught at the University of Chicago, a hotbed of right-of-center thought. His economic advisers, notably Austan Goolsbee, recognize that ordinary citizens stand to gain more from open markets than from government meddling. That's got to rub off.

When it comes to health care, I am hoping Obama quietly recognizes that a crusade against pharmaceutical companies would result in the opposite of any intended effect. And in any event, McCain's plans in this area are deeply problematic, too. Take drug reimportation. McCain (like Obama) says he's perfectly comfortable with this ill-conceived scheme, which would drive research and development dollars away from the next generation of miracle cures.

But overall, based on his embrace of centrist advisers and policies, it seems likely that Obama will turn out to be in the mold of John Kennedy - who was fond of noting that "a rising tide lifts all boats." Over the last few decades, economic growth has made Americans at every income level better off. For all his borderline pessimistic rhetoric, Obama knows this. And I believe he is savvy enough to realize that the real threat to middle-class families and the poor - an economic undertow that drags everyone down - cannot be counteracted by an activist government.

Or maybe not. But here's the thing: Even if my hopes on domestic policy are dashed and Obama reveals himself as an unreconstructed, dyed-in-the-wool, big-government liberal, I'm still voting for him.

These past eight years, we have spent over a trillion dollars on foreign soil - and lost countless lives - and done what I consider irreparable damage to our Constitution.

If economic damage from well-intentioned but misbegotten Obama economic schemes is the ransom we must pay him to clean up this foreign policy mess, then so be it. It's not nearly as costly as enduring four more years of what we suffered the last eight years.

[Jeff Head]

How about Bravo Sierra comprade Hunter. Capisce? A true conservative could never support Obama...unless he has been bought and paid for (and is thus no conservative at all, but a political whore), or unless he has drunk the kool-aid and morphed into a marxist useful idiot.

Any true consevative is having to hold back bile to vote for McCain in many ways, but may be able to do so to avoid the arsenic and cyanide that Obama represents.

Obama's views on taxes, abortion, immigration, the 2nd amendment, marriage, moral values, the military, the war againsty islamic jihad, the economy, the environment, energy (drilling for oil and nuclear power) etc., etc. are all the anti-thesis of conservatism and will serve to destroy this nation's way of life, it's propseriy, and its liberty.

In many areas McCain is just as bad...but on marriage, the 2nd amendment, taxes, energy, abortion (and the USSC as regards it), and the war on Islamic Jihad his views represent differences enough for me to abjectly oppose Obama and his poison.

BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA - CHANGE YOU CAN COUNT ON, BUT DON'T WANT

THE AUDACITY OF TRUTH ABOUT BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA

[angkor]

Over the last few decades, economic growth has made Americans at every income level better off.

Our constitutional system of government has made Americans better off for 215 years, not a "few decades". Even the evil practice of racial discrimination is well on the road to being remedied.

lost countless lives - and done what I consider irreparable damage to our Constitution.

Typical leftie hysteria and hyperbole. There's been no damage to the Constitution, with the exception of judicial excess and courts interfering with the Executive's wartime authority (e.g., habeus corpus hearings for POWs in civilian courts).

[bmwcyle]

I'm a lifelong conservative activist and I'm backing Barack Obama

You are an idiot and you should just end it all.

[detective]

So many of these Republicans are just opportunists and have no principals. The author of the article worked for the Republicans when it was in his interest and now he thinks it is expedient to support Obama. This guy is not a conservative. He wouldn't have written any of this garbage if he were a conservative.

[stockpirate]

Another Republican RINO coming home to roost. No doubt a leberal all a long!

Please change party’s while you are at it.

[Broker]

If you stand in a garage, does that make you a car?
Claiming 2 b a republican, does that make you a conservative?

[meyer]

"...a supply-side conservative..."

No, it's pretty obvious that you're a flippin' communist if you are even thinking of voting for the annointed one. He, like every democRAT, will do nothing but steal more of my earnings to buy the votes of more deadbeats. Just like LBJ, FDR, and the rest of them.

[stockpirate]

Not addresed to you, but to the writer.

[snarks_when_bored]

Earth to moron: the Iraq war is won, and Obama was wrong about the surge.

[buck61]

BTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[meyer]

I wonder why he lost his bearings?

Every man has his price....

[Pistolshot]

The answer is simple: Unjustified war

I didn't get passed this part. Another idiot, who is a 'lifelong conservative', drinking the liberal kool-aid.

[McBuff]

Hunter "works closely with the Congressional leadership, testifies before Congress, speaks frequently before business and citizens groups, is quoted often in major newspapers and makes frequent television and radio appearances."

The answer is simple: Larry's a HO!

[Fawn]

The man lost his mind...he became ignorant and stupid.

[EBH]

And yet he goes on to say he doesn’t trust him on economic issues? So why trust on the first item and not the rest?

[yankeedame]

...nothing to indicate irrational thinking. I wonder why he lost his bearings?

Who can say? The heart of a man is a dark forest.

[Oldeconomybuyer]

It appears Mr. Hunter has come out of the closet.

[Little Ray]

In other words, this clown is actually a crypo-Libertarian and shares their suicidal foreign and domestic security policies.

[KLFuchs]

Claiming 2 b a republican, does that make you a conservative?

Absolutely not.

Just look at Warner, Snowe and Collins.

(It's so depressing!)

[angkor]

>>>>>A true conservative could never support Obama<<<<

I'm a true conservative who for a while thought of voting for him sheerly out my animus for McQueeg, who I dislike as a pol but even more so as a man.

So not “support” for Obama but more sop for the lefties and for the Huckster True Believers who handed McQueeg the nomination.

I'm not quite of the same mind today, this moment. McQueeg is the same guy as always, but maybe there's some truth to his claim of being somewhat flexible and that he *might* be convinced by conservative opinion. Also pairing him with Romney *might* work out OK.

But how any alleged conservative could possibly support Obama **on the issues** (as opposed to a protest) is beyond me, in fact I'd say it's impossible. The mind cannot tolerate believing two opposite opinions simultaneously.