Philadelphia-based Republican talk show host Michael Smerconish has now endorsed Barack Obama. He will have an editorial in the Philadelphia Inquirer to that effect soon, and he read excerpts of it on the air today on WPHT in Philadelphia.
I can't say I've ever liked the guy much. But even though he's subbed for Bill O'Reilly, Glen Beck, and other notable rightwing hate merchants on TV, in my opinion he's not one of them. He recently admonished the McCain camp and his fellow Republicans for promoting the Bill Ayers propaganda, and he didn't pussyfoot around.
But make no mistake, he's a hardcore conservative. And he still thinks Obama would make a better president. Excerpts of his statement after the break:
(more)
(Smerconish's statement from HERE:)
"My conclusion comes after reading the candidates’ memoirs and campaign platforms, attending both party conventions, interviewing both men multiple times, and watching all primary and general election debates.
"John McCain is an honorable man who has served his country well. But he will not get my vote. For the first time since registering as a Republican 28 years ago, I’m voting for a Democrat for president.
"I may have been an appointee in the George H.W. Bush administration, and master of ceremonies for George W. Bush in 2004, but last Saturday I stood amidst the crowd at an Obama event in North Philadelphia," says the Republican.
[snip]
"Terrorism. The candidates disagree as to where to prosecute the war against Islamic fundamentalists. Barack Obama is correct in saying the front line in that battle is not Iraq, it’s the Afghan-Pakistan border. Osama bin Laden crossed that border from Tora Bora in December 2001, and we stopped pursuit. The Bush administration outsourced the hunt for bin Laden and, instead, invaded Iraq.
"No one in Iraq caused the death of 3,000 Americans on 9/11. Our invasion was based on a false predicate, so we have no business being there, regardless of whether the surge is working. Our focus must be the tribal-ruled FATA region in Pakistan. Only recently has our military engaged al-Qaeda there in operations that mirror those Obama was ridiculed for recommending in August 2007.
Let me issue a not-so-bold prediction and say that Smerconish will be called an un-American commie Jesus-hating homo traitor, and be threatened with cancer, death and damnation, etc.... all by the usual rightwing suspects. He will be hated and shunned, Pravda-style, for breaking with the One True Party by such party geniuses as Comrade Jonah Goldberg and his ilk.
It doesn't matter.
And it doesn't matter if Smerconish is a mixed bag... whether he is really beginning to examine the entirety of the Republican party of the last eight-plus years, or if he is just making an unusually quirky choice. Or even if he just wants to hop on a winning bandwagon. I don't know the man, I don't know his mind. Obviously, I think it would be great if people like him started turning their back on their party and its obviously failed philosophy, but I think it's naive to expect that from Smerconish OR the more erudite Christopher Buckley.
But.
Every time one of these rightwingers turns in our direction, it makes Barack Obama more mainstream, and makes the nasty, idiotic charges promoted by McCain and the GOP seem less credible. It exposes them as desperate political ploys done by people of NO integrity or honor. (Sorry, Mr. Smerconish, that's where we part ways... McCain may once have had some honor, but he threw it overboard a long time ago.)
And that is good.