10/29/08: Obama endorsed by Alaska's biggest paper and conservatives' leading thinker

The latest big-name Republican to break ranks and endorse Sen Barack Obama for President is Francis Fukuyama , writing in The American Conservative, advisor to Ronald Reagan and one of the stalwarts of the neoconservative movement. This is the guy who bragged that “the End of History” was at hand when the Soviet empire collapsed, and who has now endorsed the man McCain and Palin are calling “a dangerous communist”?? Well, get in line, Francis; you’re only the latest in an increasingly long line of prominent Repubs who are so disgusted with McCain’s repulsive campaign and his atrocious choice of Palin for his VP, that they would actually turn around and endorse Obama. As Fukuyama says:

It is hard to imagine a more disastrous presidency than that of George W. Bush. While John McCain is trying desperately to pretend that he never had anything to do with the Republican Party, I think it would a travesty to reward the Republicans for failure on such a grand scale.

McCain’s appeal was always that he could think for himself, but as the campaign has progressed, he has seemed simply erratic and hotheaded. His choice of Sarah Palin as a running mate was highly irresponsible.
McCain’s lurching from Reaganite free- marketer to populist tribune makes one wonder whether he has any underlying principles at all.

By the way, Obama had a great comeback to McCain’s most recent allegations:

“He's been spending these last few days calling me every name in the book. Lately he's called me a socialist for wanting to roll-back the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans so we can finally give tax relief to the middle class. I don't know what's next. By the end of the week he'll be accusing me of being a secret communist because I shared my toys in kindergarten.”

Major newspapers endorsements for Obama/Biden have also increased dramatically since I last reported on this. Currently, the Democratic team now leads by 231 to 102,a better than 2-1 margin and an even wider spread in the circulation of those papers - the Obama-backing papers have 21 million, compared with McCain's 7 million. At least 46 papers have now switched to Obama from Bush in 2004, with just four flipping to McCain Three of the top five dailies in deep red state Texas have switched from Bush to Obama this time, as has Alaska's major newspaper, the Anchorage Daily News. Concluding (reluctantly) that their homegirl Palin is not ready to be President, ADN says:

Like picking Sen. McCain for president, putting her [Palin] one 72-year-old heartbeat from the leadership of the free world is just too risky at this time.
It is Sen. Obama who truly promises fundamental change in Washington. You need look no further than the guilt-by-association lies and sound-bite distortions of the degenerating McCain campaign to see how readily he embraces the divisive, fear-mongering tactics of Karl RoveSen.

Barack Obama, the Democratic nominee, brings far more promise to the office. In a time of grave economic crisis, he displays thoughtful analysis, enlists wise counsel and operates with a cool, steady hand.

Well put. I couldn't say it better myself.