More Republicans Jumping Ship From McCain Campaign

More Republicans are jumping ship from the GOP Presidential campaign of Sen. John McCain.

When former Secretary of State Colin Powell used both Meet The Press and a short press conference afterward to deliver what was, in effect, a regretfully but comprehensively voiced indictment of McCain’s 2008 campaign in contrast to the McCain Powell knew for many years, the retired General was simply articulating what some Republicans and independents have felt. There are now signs that other Republicans are now jumping ship to vote for Democratic Senator Barack Obama for one of two reasons, or a combination of them: to vote for Obama over McCain and to register a protest vote against the incarnation of the Republican party as it is evolving under a McCain candidacy managed by proteges of GOP strategist Karl Rove.

Earlier on this site, TMV writer Dennis Sanders, a Republican whose thoughtful posts pointing out the pluses of McCain and defending the Arizona Senator against some of the more fiery attacks, wrote THIS MUST READ POST where he regretfully breaks with McCain and throws his support to Obama.

Now, according to the New Yorker, prominent Republican Ken Adelman is also nixing McCain to vote for Obama.

Ken Adelman is a lifelong conservative Republican. Campaigned for Goldwater, was hired by Rumsfeld at the Office of Economic Opportunity under Nixon, was assistant to Defense Secretary Rumsfeld under Ford, served as Reagan’s director of arms control, and joined the Defense Policy Board for Rumsfeld’s second go-round at the Pentagon, in 2001. Adelman’s friendship with Rumsfeld, Cheney, and their wives goes back to the sixties, and he introduced Cheney to Paul Wolfowitz at a Washington brunch the day Reagan was sworn in.

In recent years, Adelman and his friends Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Wolfowitz fell out over his criticisms of the botching of the Iraq War. Still, he remains a bona-fide hawk (“not really a neo-con but a con-con”) who has never supported a Democrat for President in his life. Two weeks from now that’s going to change: Ken Adelman intends to vote for Barack Obama. He can hardly believe it himself.

Why is he voting for Obama?

In a nutshell: McCain’s response to the economic crisis and his selection of Gov. Sarah Palin as Vice President — a choice, it’s increasingly clear, that might have wowed Rush Limbaugh but in the long run is also losing McCain some votes. Click on the link to read his email explaining his reasons.

Meanwhile, Louis Zickar, editor of The Ripon Forum, the moderate Republicans’ Ripon Society’s journal of thought and opinion that has been in print for more than 40 years, has an op-ed piece in the Chicago Tribune titled “As Obama channels Reagan, the real McCain vanishes” in which he struggles with the McCain candidacy — making it clear Obama is increasingly appealing.

A few excerpts:

I was born in 1964. Too young for Vietnam, didn’t care about Watergate, I came of age at a time when 52 Americans were being held hostage in Iran. Jimmy Carter was president. Patriotism was passe. And the country my parents told me about seemed broken and faded away.

Then came Ronald Reagan and his promise to restore our national pride. It’s ironic that a 16-year-old boy concerned about the future could be inspired by a 69-year-old man talking about the past. But that’s what happened. I decided the day Reagan was inaugurated to get involved in politics—to help make America great again. I also decided that day to become a Republican.

Nearly 30 years later, I remain a Republican. And, as someone who has spent the better part of his adult life working for Republican candidates and causes, I take a certain amount of pride in what our party has accomplished. We cut taxes. We reformed welfare. We balanced the budget for the first time in a generation. Perhaps most significant, the party—led by President George W. Bush—provided the country with the leadership it needed after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

But like a lot of Republicans, I am deeply distressed by the state our party finds itself in today. Enough has been written about these problems to warrant no further mention in this space. But for those of us who worked in the Republican minority on Capitol Hill during the late 1980s, there is a sense that the GOP of the past few years has become no better than the arrogant, ethically challenged, free-spending Democratic majority we had worked so hard to defeat.

But perhaps the most troubling thing for me this year is that the most Reaganesque candidate in the race for president is not a Republican at all. It’s Barack Obama.

He explains why he sees it this way, then concludes:

Whether it’s accusing Obama of wanting to teach sex education to kindergartners or selecting Sarah Palin as a running mate who shores up his base but is not ready to fill his shoes, McCain has not just been practicing second-rate politics—he has been embracing it.

I say all of this with a heavy heart. I am a longtime supporter of McCain. In 2000, when I was serving as a top aide to a Republican congressman from Texas, I voted for McCain in the primaries. I did this not because I opposed George W. Bush. Rather, McCain won my vote. I cannot say the same thing today.

So does that mean I’m supporting Barack Obama? The simple answer to that is—not yet. After a lifetime of supporting Republicans for president, I am having a hard time coming to grips with the fact that I may actually pull the lever for a Democrat this year. Deep down, I am also still hoping that the old John McCain will return; that he’s like the character Mad-Eye Moody in “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire”—locked away in a trunk somewhere, while an impersonator runs amok playing him in public.

Unfortunately, time is running out on that scenario.

If the old John McCain is going to find his way out, he better do so in a hurry. Because there’s another player on the public stage, one who not only resembles Ronald Reagan in his ability to inspire, but who is about to win my vote and, I suspect, the votes of other Republicans too.

Read it in its entirety.

Basically, there are two battles going on: the battle for the White House — and the battle for the soul of the Republican Party.

The voting in two weeks will decide one battle and likely be the opening salvo in a longer-range one…with an outcome still difficult to predict…