The Real Reason Republicans Are Backing Obama?
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in 2008 Election, Barack, Bush, McCain, RepublicansThey’re not Obamacans, they’re Obamacons…and they’re pissed at George W.
[...] the Iraq war and President Bush’s “compassionate conservatism” that led to an expansion of government have ruptured the coalition. Many conservatives are aghast at the rise in spending and debt under the Bush administration, its expansion of executive power, and what they see as a trampling of civil liberties and a taste for empire.“I do know libertarians who think Obama is the Antichrist, that he’s farther left than John Kerry, much farther left than Bill Clinton, and you’d clearly have to be insane to vote for this guy,” said David Boaz, executive vice president of the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. “But there are libertarians who say, ‘Oh yeah? Do you think Obama will increase spending by $1 trillion, because that’s what Republicans did over the past two presidential terms. So really, how much worse can he be?’ And there are certainly libertarians who think Obama will be better on the war and on foreign policy, on executive power and on surveillance than McCain.”
So what is it about Obama that some Obamacons do seem to trust?
As I’ve said in the past, tone matters and Obama can often be one of the best at setting the right kind when talking to philosophical opponents:
Many conservatives and their brethren, the free-market, socially liberal libertarians, are deeply skeptical of Obama’s rhetorical flirtations with free-market ideas and view his policies as orthodox liberalism. Yet one measure of their rupture with the GOP is their open disregard for Republican nominee John McCain and their now almost-wistful view of a president the Republicans tried to impeach.“When he leaves the room, everybody thinks he just agreed with them,” Greve said of Obama. “We don’t know if you’re really buying a pig in a poke here. It could be the second coming of the Clinton administration. If people have any confidence in that, I think a whole lot of conservatives would vote for him.”
Will they? I think so. After talking with many Republicans who just can’t or won’t get excited about McCain, they’re willing to give somebody like Obama, a guy who seems reasonable, a chance. And let’s be clear…we’re not talking about a massive party swing here. That’s not needed for him to win big. More like a 10% shift and you’re starting to get into landslide territory.
We shall see…
This entry was posted on Monday, July 7th, 2008 and is filed under 2008 Election, Barack, Bush, McCain, Republicans. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
July 7th, 2008 at 10:53 am
Count me in.
July 7th, 2008 at 8:44 pm
I think what will be interesting is what happens if (and it’s very likely) that Obama is elected and he starts tacking left. Will the Obamacons stick with Obama?
My guess is that right now, they are mad at Bush, and don’t trust McCain and that their votes are less for Obama than against Bush.
July 8th, 2008 at 12:53 am
It’ll be a little late then Dennis.
Everything that they liked about the Clinton administration (balance budget, welfare reform, NAFTA, spending restraint, etc. ) occurred during the six year of divided government and not the two years of single party democratic government.