Is this the October Surprise, widespread sundering of the GOP?

I expect that one or two major Republicans will do just this, active office holders, not retired or retiring ones like Milliken, Leach, and Gilchrest. Hopefully someone like Snowe, Lugar, or the like. And once the first olive comes out of the bottle...

I suspect a lot of Republicans, including some who are quite conservative (Lugar-Warner conservative, not Palin-Delay conservative) are quietly banking on the polls bearing up and McCain losing. It would be good for the country if they stod up to be counted. But as with Establishment Dems in the Lieberman-Lamont race, they've known John for years, and they're sure he hasn't really gone nuts, and things will calm down after the campaign, blahblahblah. I hope, for the country's sake, their cowardly optimism about Obama comes true.

Bravo to Miliken for speaking up.

Powell. Paging Colin Powell. You are needed in front of a microphone, stat.

The endorsement is certainly welcome, but don't take this as an example of the GOP abandoning McCain. William Milliken is a liberal Republican who also endorsed John Kerry in 2004.

He was also Lt. Governor under George Romney. He knew better than to endorse Romney's son in the primary.

Hey, speaking of Repubs and endorsements, anyone heard anything about Powell? There's been some talk, but I haven't heard anything lately. Anyone?

We may, in the end, see the reverse Bradley effect. I have a feeling many mainstream
Republicans are uncomfortable with the tone of McCain's campaign, Sarah Palin and the erratic John McCain, himself. Quite a few Republican voters may quietly go into the voting booth and vote for Obama knowing we can't risk the results of a McCain/Palin administration.

Would anyone have trouble using "Hagel" and "coward" in a sentence?

What legacy of honor do McC(umst)ain's campaign 'shame?'

His careers seem an unbroken parade of lies, deceit, and betrayal.

Bombin' Johnnie's sich a thoroughly loathsome individual, i find it hard to imagine he's capable of 'shame.'

Fuck Hagel and Powell both. The time for them to get the hell off the pot is long gone. This slime sticks to them now, and will continue to do so. Powell in particular has blown his last chance to salvage a little bit of his shredded reputation.

The upside of Palin running is that if Obama wins, then not only Rovian tactics will have been defeated, but the Christianists will be perceived as toxic also. Not to mention putting a big dent in rascism. So much at stake.

That's Just What I Said

On a related, but more personal note, yesterday I struck up a conversation with a woman at the Starbucks near my office. We sat down for a good 45 minutes or so. I learned that she planned to vote for McCain and we had a very civil but substantive talk about politics and the presidential election. One of her biggest concerns is abortion. She is Catholic. Anyway, after some back and forth I said that making abortion illegal won't stop abortions it will only turn women who seek them into criminals. I went on to say the I believe it should be safe, legal and rare, but that at the end of the day it is a deeply personal decision. She seemed really moved by that. Also, we discussed the tenor of the campaign lately and she also was not comfortable with the direction of the McCain-Palin campaign. Anyway, to point is, there are MANY people like this woman who might be persuaded to vote for Obama. We simply need to engage them in civil conversation whenever we can. The main thing is not to be confrontational. Obviously if someone is spewing hateful things they are not someone we are going to convince. But I believe there are many more people like this woman than there are nutjobs. Find them (not the netjobs ;-) ), talk to them. Oh, and donate time and/or money to the Obama-Biden campaign.

I think McCain's negative campaign is a testament to Rove, not a defeat.

When John became the shoe-in GOP candidate, he was behind Obama with little hope of catching up. His one chance, a chance he wanted so badly, was to utilize the same campaign tactics that took him down in 2000. He may despise those tactics, but he respects their power.

And once Karl's former staffers took charge, McCain became a household name. Maybe for a lot of the wrong reasons (surprise populist VP, self aggrandizing, smear tactics, etc), but it happened.

Bad moon rising.

The republican party is a burning building.
The smart ones are jumping clear and running free.

The absolutely best thing for America is two parties dedicated to battling in the marketplace of ideas. The dialectic two-party system has value in a checks-and-balance sort of way. We don't talk about that very much. Even so, I argue, it is clearly in our best interests to welcome the leapers with open arms...

When John became the shoe-in GOP candidate, he was behind Obama with little hope of catching up. -wishIwuz2

That's simply not true.

McCain was fairly consistenly ahead until the end of May, and even ahead briefly in September.

You say his only chance was turning to Karl Rove, but I think it was just the opposite. If he had kept the ilk of Karl Rove miles away from his campaign and picked a respectable VP candidate, we'd be looking at a much closer race.

And once Karl's former staffers took charge, McCain became a household name. -wishIwuz2

McCain has been a household name for decades. He had a great reputation, undeserved, as we know, but he could have leveraged it for this election.

We are actually very lucky he chose to squander his good will and run an angry, Rovian campaign. He didn't need to, and it certainly didn't help him.

Yeah - "household name" was a poor choice of words. I was trying to convey the idea that his prominience in the race was elevated considerably by Rovian tactics.

But I disagree that it didn't help him. It might not have helped with those cross-over voters from 2000. But much of the GOP base had lost interest in this election. Mac's choice of Palin and his conversion to slime showed fight, and conservatives love a fighter.

There is only one problem with Milliken's comments--he thinks the Republican Party "is becoming rigid". Sorry, it's been rigid for years. The only flexibility they have is how low they are willing to sink.

As for Colin Powell, any credibility he might have left after a stint with the Bushies will expire if he testifies as a character witness for soon-to-be-ex-Senator Stevens. He'd have to do a lot more than endorse Obama to reverse that trend.