HUMAN EVENTS believes those well-known Republicans and conservatives who supported Barack Obama or bashed Sarah Palin belong in a Hall of Shame.
Endorsed Obama
Colin Powell, former secretary of State: “He has both style and substance. I think he is a transformational figure.”
William Weld, former Republican governor of Massachusetts: “It’s not often you get a guy with his combination of qualities, chief among which I would say is the deep sense of calm he displays, and I think that’s a product of his equally deep intelligence.”
Christopher Buckley, son of William F. Buckley Jr.: “Let me be the latest conservative/libertarian/whatever to leap onto the Barack Obama bandwagon. It’s a good thing my dear old mum and pup are no longer alive. They’d cut off my allowance.”
Arne Carlson, former governor of Minnesota: “I consider myself a Republican maverick.”
Scott McClellan, former spokesman for President George W. Bush: “I will be voting for Barack Obama... I am going to support the candidate that has the best chance for changing the way Washington works and getting things done.”
Charles Fried, Solicitor General in Reagan’s Administration: Said he voted for Obama by absentee ballot because of “the choice of Sarah Palin at a time of deep national crisis.”
Ken Adelman, former Pentagon official and adviser under Presidents Ford, Reagan, and George W. Bush: “Why so, since my views align a lot more with McCain’s than with Obama’s? And since I truly dread the notion of a Democratic President, Democratic House, and hugely Democratic Senate? Primarily for two reasons, those of temperament and of judgment.”
Lincoln Chafee, former Republican senator from Rhode Island: “It’s a different John McCain. Seeing the two different John McCains is a fracture in his credibility.”
James Leach, former Republican Iowa congressman: “Thousands of other Republicans are going to be picking country over party in this election.”
Susan Eisenhower, business consultant and author, daughter of President Eisenhower’s brother, John: “I am convinced that Barack Obama is the one presidential candidate today who can encourage ordinary Americans to stand straight again; he is a man who can salve our national wounds and both inspire and pursue genuine bipartisan cooperation.”
Attacked Palin
David Frum, former Bush speechwriter: “The McCain campaign has Palinized itself to make the most of its last asset. To fire up the Republican base, the McCain team has hit at Barack Obama as an alien, a radical and a Socialist. … The very same campaign strategy that has belatedly mobilized the Republican core has alienated and offended the great national middle, which was the only place where the 2008 election could have been won.”
David Brooks, self-styled conservative columnist for New York Times: “[Palin] represents a fatal cancer to the Republican party.”
Peggy Noonan, former Reagan speechwriter: “[Palin] does not speak seriously but attempts to excite sensation... she has spent her time throwing out tinny lines to crowds she doesn’t, really, understand. This is not a leader, this is a follower. She could re-inspire and re-inspirit; she chooses merely to excite. She doesn’t seem to understand the implications of her own thoughts.”
