Times OnLine
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/worl...icle1752381.ece

Republicans Defect to the Obama Camp
By Sarah Baxter
The Sunday Times UK
Sunday 06 May 2007

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.

Bernstein is a champion of human rights, who admires Obama's call for action on Darfur, while Dowd's opposition to the war has been sharpened by the expected deployment to Iraq of his son, an Arabic-speaking Army intelligence specialist.

But last week a surprising new name joined the chorus of praise for the antiwar Obama - that of Robert Kagan, a leading neoconservative and co-founder of the Project for the New American Century in the late 1990s, which called for the overthrow of Saddam Hussein.

Kagan is an informal foreign policy adviser to the Republican senator John McCain, who remains the favoured neoconservative choice for the White House because of his backing for the troops in Iraq.

But in an article in the Washington Post, Kagan wrote approvingly that a keynote speech by Obama at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs was "pure John Kennedy", a neocon hero of the cold war.

In his speech, Obama called for an increase in defence spending and an extra 65,000 soldiers and 27,000 marines to "stay on the offense" against terrorism and ensure America had "the strongest, best-equipped military in the world". He talked about building democracies, stopping weapons of mass destruction and the right to take unilateral action to protect US "vital interests" if necessary, as well as the importance of building alliances.

"Personally, I liked it," Kagan wrote.

Disagreements on the war have not stopped John Martin, a Navy reservist and founder of the website Republicans for Obama, from supporting the antiwar senator. He joined the military after the Iraq war and is about to be deployed to Afghanistan.

"I disagree with Obama on the war but I don't think it is a test of his patriotism," Martin says. "Obama has a message of hope for the country."

Financiers have also been oiling Obama's campaign. In Chicago, his home town, John Canning, a "Bush pioneer" and investment banker who pledged to raise $100,000 for the president in 2004, has given up on the Republicans. "I know lots of my friends in this business are disenchanted and are definitely looking for something different," he said.

Not to be outdone, Hillary Clinton has many Republican defectors of her own, including John Mack, chief executive of Morgan Stanley, who helped raise $200,000 for the president's reelection, qualifying him as a "Bush ranger". He said last week that he was impressed by Clinton's expertise. "I know we're associated mainly with the Republicans but we've always gone for the individual," Mack said.

According to figures compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics in Washington, Obama and Clinton have vacuumed up more than $750,000 (£375,000) in individual contributions from former Bush donors.

Some of the donations reflect the natural tendency of those with power to shift to the likely White House winner. Penny Pritzker, the staggeringly successful head of fundraising for Obama, voted for John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic candidate, but also donated that year to Bush. As she was a head of the family-run Hyatt hotel chain, it was considered a prudent move.

With the Democrats widely expected to win in 2008, Clinton's status as frontrunner is encouraging Wall Street money to migrate to her, while Obama may be picking up some mischievous "Stop Hillary" donations from still-loyal Republicans. But there is plenty of genuine enthusiasm to go around.

A poll released by Rasmussen last week showed Obama overtaking Clinton for the first time by 32% to 30%, although another poll by Quinnepiac showed her with a 14-point lead over the Illinois senator, her nearest rival.

The current issue of the New Yorker contains a profile of Obama, which highlights his appeal to conservatives.

For his optimism about the future, Obama has been dubbed the "black Ronald Reagan". He frequently challenges the black community to support two-parent families and encourage school students, instead of criticising them for "acting white".


The Black Ronald Reagan???? Holy sheeeit!

That's all well and good, but I have to ask one question....


WHO THE HELL ARE ALL THESE HILLARY SUPPORTERS????? I have yet to meet even one! All these polls come in with Hillary in the lead, Hillary topping Obama, Hillary on a role. What the fuck? She's completely wrong for liberal Democrats, and the mere mention of the word "Clinton" will send all the potential Republican defectors running back to the GOP fold with untold zeal.

Sorry to get off on a tangent, but how the fuck is Hillary leading the polls???

Kinda like you I dont see them HOWEVER....Bill Clinton was a very, very popular man and there are those who think she is fine. Ive never met one but they are out there. Kinda like me....you never thought you would find a Conservative you liked and "poof" he is here live.

OBAMA though....hispanics like him here, black leaders like him here and ya ready...caucasion white collar likes him. He will be tough to beat.

I absolutely agree.
Unfortunately, I'm afeared Obama is a black Clinton.

If I remember correctly, and I don't always, the online poll on Capital News home page on the day after the debate asked who viewers thought won. A substantial majority of respondents thought Hillary did.

And yet, in the fund raising race Obama was nose to nose with Hillary, an in some of the most important ways was leagues ahead of Hillary.

Hillary gets extra points because she's Bills wife. She also gets extra points because she's the most recognizable. For Obama to be as close as he is puts him way out front when these givens are factored in.

Though the Top 3 Democrats trounce all the Republican candidates, I'm not personally please with any of them, except the one that has stated he will not run.

I would say hes much like Kennedy.


Thats a very good thing.

Except, most conservatives don't like Kennedy.
Except those with the fantasy that he was really a closet Republican.


The fact that Conservatives like Obama, makes me uneasy, and I'd like to know why they do.
I have to admit though to several decades of political conditioning, in that anything a conservative says he likes politically,
is probly trouble.

They don't yet know if he can be bought... but they're willing to find out.

Based on my reading of his book "The Audacity of Hope" I can guess there are several reasons. First off, he's Christian...a family man who seems to have few skeletons in the closet. He's not afraid to talk about his religious beliefs (but rest assured people, he believes there should be a separation between church and state) and frankly from what I can tell, he walks the walk...not just talks the talk.

He's friendly to trade and business...in some ways similarly to Bill Clinton. However he believes in corporate responsibility. He understands the pros/cons of a strong US economy with regard to business and corporate interests abroad and at home. He also believes that these corporations need to pay their fair share of taxes and treat their employees with dignity and respect, e.g., he supports the rights of collective bargaining.

The Reagan comment - I believe - was meant to showcase this man's ability to unite a strongly divided country. I am no Reagan fan, but one can't minimize Reagan's ability to solidify his base and bring many, many undecideds to the Republican fold.

I think Obama also exhibits this talent....god willing....to bring both sides to the table of whatever issue and to treat each side with respect while attempting to find a middle ground. If this is true, he could do for the dems what Reagan did for the repubs.

Kennedy signed the embargo against Cuba, but only after sending his errand boy out to buy 5,000 cigars. Let's make him an honorary Republican.