DOF summarizes some of the ship-jumping going on amongst some high-profile Republicans, who are choosing to vote for Obama.
Something weird is going on. Conservative leaders like Colin Powell, Chris Buckley, and Ken Adelman are endorsing Obama.
Conservative newspapers are going for the Senator from Illinois, too. The Chicago Tribune has endorsed their first Democrat in their entire 163-year history. The editor-in-chief of Dallas Magazine now calls himself A Conservative For Obama. The most important newspaper in Alaska is swimming madly for the Obama ship: Anchorage Daily News endorses Obama – McCain erratic, Palin not ready
Hell, even our own Pantagraph has endorsed Obama. Twice they endorsed Ike over Stevenson, and Stevenson was from Bloomington. And owned half-interest in the newspaper! (In case you think there’s no such thing as editorial independence.)
Is it just petulance or political infighting? No, not apparently.
So I ask again, what the hell is going on? Just this: Obama is a better candidate, and there are still a lot of conservatives out there who will vote for the better candidate, regardless if they have an R or a D after their name. It’s called “thinking”. HuffPost contributor Eric Hirshberg set out to interview some of the thinking conservatives, and found it a moving experience; Conservatives voting for Obama, in their own words. Here’s a sample:
This is what democracy is supposed to be. These people actually listened, considered and were open to the possibility of change. They didn’t support a candidate. They actually chose one. And while I’m happy this year they are voting for “my team,” they also inspired me to be more open in my own political life.
I thought we were making an ad campaign about Obama. But I think we ended up making an ad campaign about the essential ingredient that makes democracy work: an open mind. We don’t belong to our political parties. Our political parties belong to us.
“They didn’t support a candidate. They actually chose one.” That’s kind of neat. And it points a way out of the party polarization that the US has gotten mired in.