Republican presumptive Presidential nominee Sen. John McCain is worried about Republican “Obamacons” who could openly or all-but-openly support rival Democratic Senator Barack Obama come November, columnist Robert Novak writes.
What’s a Republican with a reputation for being independent who wants to distance himself just enough from the Bush administration so he doesn’t lose his party base to do?
Novak writes:
What is an “Obamacon?” The phrase surfaced in January to describe British conservatives entranced by Barack Obama. On March 13 the American Spectator broadened the term to cover all “conservative supporters” of the Democratic presidential candidate. Their ranks, though growing, feature few famous people. But looming on the horizon are two big potential Obamacons: Colin Powell and Chuck Hagel.
Neither Powell, first-term secretary of state for George W. Bush, nor Hagel, retiring after two terms as a U.S. senator from Nebraska, has endorsed Obama. Hagel probably never will. Powell probably will enter Obama’s camp at a time of his own choosing. The best bet is that neither of the two, both of whom supported President Bush in 2000 and 2004, will back John McCain in 2008.
Powell, Hagel and lesser-known Obamacons harbor no animosity toward McCain. Nor do they show much affection for the rigidly liberal Obama. The Obamacon syndrome is based on hostility to Bush and his administration and on revulsion over today’s Republican Party. The danger for McCain is that desire for a therapeutic electoral bloodbath could get out of control.
This is what I have called for months now the Big Broom. There are many voters who may agree with McCain on some key issues and not be totally-comfortable with Obama. But come November — as they try to get a loan from a bank to fill up their cars with $8/gallon gas and find out they can’t get a loan since credit is tight and their home equity has evaporated — many of these voters may wish to take a Big Broom and totally sweep out the crew that has administered the financial mess.
At a time when consumer confidence is setting record lows, it could truly be “it’s the economy, stupid” and not the war and not offshore drilling and most assuredly not whether Karl Rove (who has apparently now emerged as America’s populist) thinks Obama looks like an arrogant country club member smoking a cigarette with a beautiful woman on his arm.
In the Republican Party, Big Broom politics would entail Republicans not voting or defecting to Obama so that the day after the election, as their party regroups after the defeat, Bushies are politely but assertively shown the door out of the room of party power — and new blood would take over in the wake of the therapeutic electoral bloodbath.
Novak again:
While Powell may not be a legitimate Obamacon because he never was much of a conservative, that cannot be said for his close Senate friend Hagel. He has built a solidly conservative record as a senator, but mutual friends see no difference between him and the general on Iraq, Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld, George W. Bush and the Republican Party. In a speech today at the Brookings Institution, Hagel is expected to urge Obama and McCain to reach out to each other. At the least, Hagel is not ready to strap on armor for his longtime political ally and office neighbor, John McCain.
Novak adds that he’s not suggesting that there is going to be a flood of conservatives leaving their party, but that McCain faces a fat problem, and the Republican party should do some soul searching:
Nevertheless, Obamacons — little and big — are reason for concern by McCain. They also should cause soul-searching at the Bush White House about who made the Republican Party so difficult a place for Republicans to stay.
That’s the question establishment Republicans will have to grapple with for some time. How did they come to a point where moderate Republicans feel they have no home in the party and some conservatives also question whether they have a stable home?
And make no mistake about it: the odds are VERY HIGH that Powell will endorse Obama. Two weeks ago the Sunday Times ran this item:
The Obama campaign has a sharp-eyed political operations team tasked with seeking out prominent endorsers “on both sides of the aisle”, according to a campaign official. It came tantalisingly close to securing one of the biggest names in politics when Colin Powell, secretary of state during President George W Bush’s first term in office, said last week that he might vote for Obama.
Powell said Obama and John McCain, his Republican opponent, “have the qualifications to be president, but both of them cannot be”. He added that he would neither vote for Obama because he was African-American nor for McCain because of his military service but for the individual who “brings the best set of tools to the problems of 21st-century America . . . regardless of party”.
When it happens, some GOPers will dismiss it, saying Powell was just a wishy, washy, RINO who didn’t care about the party anyway — but it will be a big “get” when it happens.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.