Grinnell's Adelman for Obama

Another conservative endorsement for Barack Obama. This time from Ken Adelman, who was President Reagan's Ambassador to the U.N. and then Director of the U. S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency and accompanied Reagan on his superpower summits with Mikhail Gorbachev.

And, Adelman has an Iowa connection.... he was a philosophy major at Grinnell College before attending Georgetown University, where he received a Masters in Foreign Service Studies and Doctorate in Political Theory.

Last Friday in a Huffington Post op-ed, "Why a Staunch Conservative Like Me Endorsed Obama," Adelman explains why he decided for the first time in his life to vote for a Democratic presidential candidate.

This paragraph about sums it up, "McCain's temperament -- leading him to bizarre behavior during the week the economic crisis broke -- and his judgment -- leading him to Wasilla -- depressed me into thinking that "our guy" would be a(nother) lousy conservative president. Been there, done that."

Adelman rejects the Bush-McCain brand of conservatism... he labels himself as a "staunch conservative" but not a "neo con."

Adelman explains: "I was never liberal along the way (having campaigned for Barry Goldwater in 1964, when at that hotbed of lefty politics, Grinnell College). I'm really a con-con.

"And not a staunch Republican, as I've never been to a Republican rally or convention. So I've considered myself less of a partisan than an ideologue. I cared about conservative principles, and still do, instead of caring about the GOP....

"Granted, McCain's views are closer to mine than Obama's. But I've learned over this Bush era to value competence along with ideology. Otherwise, our ideology gets discredited, as it has so disastrously over the past eight years."

So... as we've seen time and time again these past few months, conservatives of character and conscience disavow the Bush-McCain failed faux-conservative ideology.

Adelman's final thought, "...I concluded that McCain would not -- could not -- be a good president. Obama just might be."

Palin: The Real Bridge to Nowhere

GOP political pundits are polite on camera about the astonishing pick of 18-month Alaska governor Sarah Palin as the heart-beat-away Veep choice of 72-year-old GOP presidential candidate John McCain.

The real opinion of the GOP spinners surfaced yesterday when Reagan's speechwriter Peggy Noonan, and McCain's former campaign chief Mike Murphy gave their off-camera (but recorded) judgment of the selection of Palin to NBC's Chuck Todd.... here's what they really think. (YouTube)

The transcript:
Murphy: You know, because I come out of the blue swing state governor work. Engler, Whitman, Thompson, Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush. And these guys, this is all like how you want to (inaudible) this race. You know, just run it up. And it's not gonna work.

Noonan: It's over.

Murphy: Still, McCain can give a version of the Lieberman speech to do himself some good.

Todd: Don't you think the Palin pick was insulting to Kay Bailey Hutchinson, too (inaudible)

Noonan: I saw Kay this morning.

Murphy: They're all bummed out.

Todd: I mean, is she really the most qualified woman they could have turned to?

Noonan: The most qualified? No. I think they went for this, excuse me, political bullshit about narratives and (inaudible) the picture.

Murphy: I totally agree.

Noonan: Every time the Republicans do that because that's not where they live and it's not what they're good at and they blow it.

Murphy: You know what's really the worst thing about it? The greatness of McCain is no cynicism and this is cynical.

Todd: And as you called it, gimmicky.

And there you have it. From GOP insiders. McCain's first big decision.... B.S.

The real... unvetted?.... record of McCain's Trojan horse selection is being unmasked daily. Palin's actions as mayor and governor fly in the face of her touted bio as a corruption-fighter and earmark spurner... as a gun-totin', supercharged hockey mom in go-go boots who can leap over her dearth of foreign policy experience in a single operative-managed bound.

What Palin is, is the religious right's dream come true. She is anti-choice, even in the case of rape and incest.... an extreme too radical for even Cindy McCain. She justifies the war in Iraq as "a task that is from God." And, claims it is "God's will" that the U.S. government contribute to a $30 billion gas pipeline she wants in Alaska. (NY Times)

Palin promotes intellectual design.... creationism.... and wants it taught in public schools. One of her first acts as mayor was to try to ban books in the city library that she deemed inappropriate.

Oh yes, and as mayor of tiny Wasilla, Palin raised the sales tax to build a hockey rink (her kids play) and "gathered up $27 million is subsidies from Washington, $15 million of it for a railroad from her town to the ski resort hometown of Senator Ted Stevens, now under indictment for failing to report gifts."

She was for the earmarked bridge to nowhere before she was against it.... although as Alaska's governor she kept the millions anyway.

If you ever doubted that a McCain presidency would be a continuation of the extreme and failed policies of the neo-con right wing loonies propelling George W. Bush, McCain's selection of Palin put all doubt to rest.

Evidently the McCainites think they'll snag Hillaryites with the selection of Smokin' Sarah.... that they'll cast aside their hard-won feminist gains in favor of A WOMAN!

And, McCain's handlers hope the nation will forget his Hillary-bashing misogynist jokes like the one with which McCain regaled his audience at a GOP Senate fundraiser in 1998... "Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly? Because her father is Janet Reno." (Salon)

Sis-boom for McCain and women!

The only thing ugly here is the GOP's arrogant assumption that all the jobless, bankrupted, ignored and fast-disappearing middle class will vote for more of the same with McCain and his Trophy Vice.

That would be the bridge to nowhere.