Obama finding new allies: Republicans - Many cite war in Iraq, spirit of political unity as issues
Obama finding new allies: Republicans - Many cite war in Iraq, spirit of political unity as issues
BY JENNIFER HUNTER
Copyright By The Chicago Sun-Times
June 19, 2007
There is an interesting phenomenon that has arisen over the last few months: a trend of moderate Republicans who want to vote for Barack Obama. It may seem counterintuitive, conservatives supporting a candidate who wants to tax the wealthy and embrace the conventions in the Kyoto Accord, but there is something in Obama's message about ridding politics of partisanship that is appealing to these Republicans.
He doesn't carry the baggage of a Hillary Clinton. He is new; he seems authentic -- although his connection to indicted fund-raiser Tony Rezko has made some previous supporters wonder -- and he has more gravitas than pretty boy John Edwards. The Republicans who like him may have supported John McCain in the past, but after eight years of the Bush White House they feel they can no longer support the Republican field. The idea of a congressional glasnost -- a harmonic nonpartisanship in Washington -- is an Obama goal they endorse.
Some of these right-wing Obama supporters are putative country club Republicans, hailing from areas similar to the North Shore of Chicago. Others are professionals who are disillusioned by the Bush administration's failure to develop a sound domestic policy to redress issues of health care and Social Security or to end the relentless war in Iraq.
Add to this the secrecy of the Bush administration, the Scooter Libby affair, the unfortunate choice of Alberto Gonzales as attorney general, the scandals of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, the Tom DeLays and Mark Foleys, and there remains an unsavory stew of problems for those once proud to call themselves Republican.
"From a philosophical point of view I still see myself as a Republican," says Kenneth Wehking, 38, a Denver man who works for a software company. That means being fiscally conservative and moderate on social issues, Wehking believes.
At one time he supported John McCain for those very reasons, but now he is attracted to Obama and belongs to a group called Republicans For Obama. He likes Obama's philosophy: the need to rid the country of the red/blue divide that has made it impossible to move forth legislation in immigration or health care.
"Obama is one of the first candidates who truly seems to embody a spirit of working together and moving forward," he says.
Randy Cooper, a 60-year-old lawyer from Eaton, N.H. -- not a member of Republicans for Obama -- says he grew up as an Eisenhower Republican. He supported George Herbert Walker Bush and John McCain. But Cooper began to feel that George II and his acolytes, Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, were being disingenuous about the reasons for going into Iraq.
At first Cooper supported the war "based on what the president told us." But then he began to ask questions: "I absolutely feel we were lied to. There were other reasons [Bush] wanted to go into Iraq. It wasn't just about weapons of mass destruction."
And Cooper became so disillusioned that in 2004 he voted for John Kerry. That's when Obama caught his eye, delivering his famous keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in Boston.
"Part of me thinks that a new generation should take over," says Cooper. "Our generation hasn't done all that good a job. Maybe the strife of the 1960s was just too hard to overcome.
"With Obama you get integrity and character that are so much more important when it comes to leadership than anything to do with experience."
The war is the main issue for many of these Democratically inclined Republicans and it is how the war has tarnished America's profile abroad. "I went to India last February," recalls Chicagoan Dian Eller, who works in philanthropy. "And the first thing my driver asked was if I had voted for Bush." Eller did vote for Bush the first time around, but not the second because she "was angry and disappointed about the war." But the pointed questions from the Indian driver made Eller very uncomfortable. "I am so upset about the way people feel about our country."
She wants to vote for someone who is a healer, who can restore America's respect in the world. She did think about Obama for a long time until she read the recent Sun-Times and New York Times stories about his early connection to the indicted Rezko, and it made her wonder. She is still thinking about whom to support, although it likely will not be a Republican. "Where in the world," she asks, "can we find a candidate who is different?"
BY JENNIFER HUNTER
Copyright By The Chicago Sun-Times
June 19, 2007
There is an interesting phenomenon that has arisen over the last few months: a trend of moderate Republicans who want to vote for Barack Obama. It may seem counterintuitive, conservatives supporting a candidate who wants to tax the wealthy and embrace the conventions in the Kyoto Accord, but there is something in Obama's message about ridding politics of partisanship that is appealing to these Republicans.
He doesn't carry the baggage of a Hillary Clinton. He is new; he seems authentic -- although his connection to indicted fund-raiser Tony Rezko has made some previous supporters wonder -- and he has more gravitas than pretty boy John Edwards. The Republicans who like him may have supported John McCain in the past, but after eight years of the Bush White House they feel they can no longer support the Republican field. The idea of a congressional glasnost -- a harmonic nonpartisanship in Washington -- is an Obama goal they endorse.
Some of these right-wing Obama supporters are putative country club Republicans, hailing from areas similar to the North Shore of Chicago. Others are professionals who are disillusioned by the Bush administration's failure to develop a sound domestic policy to redress issues of health care and Social Security or to end the relentless war in Iraq.
Add to this the secrecy of the Bush administration, the Scooter Libby affair, the unfortunate choice of Alberto Gonzales as attorney general, the scandals of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, the Tom DeLays and Mark Foleys, and there remains an unsavory stew of problems for those once proud to call themselves Republican.
"From a philosophical point of view I still see myself as a Republican," says Kenneth Wehking, 38, a Denver man who works for a software company. That means being fiscally conservative and moderate on social issues, Wehking believes.
At one time he supported John McCain for those very reasons, but now he is attracted to Obama and belongs to a group called Republicans For Obama. He likes Obama's philosophy: the need to rid the country of the red/blue divide that has made it impossible to move forth legislation in immigration or health care.
"Obama is one of the first candidates who truly seems to embody a spirit of working together and moving forward," he says.
Randy Cooper, a 60-year-old lawyer from Eaton, N.H. -- not a member of Republicans for Obama -- says he grew up as an Eisenhower Republican. He supported George Herbert Walker Bush and John McCain. But Cooper began to feel that George II and his acolytes, Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, were being disingenuous about the reasons for going into Iraq.
At first Cooper supported the war "based on what the president told us." But then he began to ask questions: "I absolutely feel we were lied to. There were other reasons [Bush] wanted to go into Iraq. It wasn't just about weapons of mass destruction."
And Cooper became so disillusioned that in 2004 he voted for John Kerry. That's when Obama caught his eye, delivering his famous keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in Boston.
"Part of me thinks that a new generation should take over," says Cooper. "Our generation hasn't done all that good a job. Maybe the strife of the 1960s was just too hard to overcome.
"With Obama you get integrity and character that are so much more important when it comes to leadership than anything to do with experience."
The war is the main issue for many of these Democratically inclined Republicans and it is how the war has tarnished America's profile abroad. "I went to India last February," recalls Chicagoan Dian Eller, who works in philanthropy. "And the first thing my driver asked was if I had voted for Bush." Eller did vote for Bush the first time around, but not the second because she "was angry and disappointed about the war." But the pointed questions from the Indian driver made Eller very uncomfortable. "I am so upset about the way people feel about our country."
She wants to vote for someone who is a healer, who can restore America's respect in the world. She did think about Obama for a long time until she read the recent Sun-Times and New York Times stories about his early connection to the indicted Rezko, and it made her wonder. She is still thinking about whom to support, although it likely will not be a Republican. "Where in the world," she asks, "can we find a candidate who is different?"
posted by Carlos T Mock @ 8:13 AM
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