Since I was a conservative most of my life, I feel obligated to repost this. It is from Ander Sullivan. Tell me what you think…
10. A body blow to racial identity politics. An end to the era of Jesse Jackson in black America.
9. Less debt. Yes, Obama will raise taxes on those earning over a quarter of a million. And he will spend on healthcare, Iraq, Afghanistan and the environment. But so will McCain. He plans more spending on health, the environment and won’t touch defense of entitlements. And his refusal to touch taxes means an extra $4 trillion in debt over the massive increase presided over by Bush. And the CBO estimates that McCain’s plans will add more to the debt over four years than Obama’s. Fiscal conservatives have a clear choice.
8. A return to realism and prudence in foreign policy. Obama has consistently cited the foreign policy of George H. W. Bush as his inspiration. McCain’s knee-jerk reaction to the Georgian conflict, his commitment to stay in Iraq indefinitely, and his brinksmanship over Iran’s nuclear ambitions make him a far riskier choice for conservatives. The choice between Obama and McCain is like the choice between George H.W. Bush’s first term and George W.’s.
7. An ability to understand the difference between listening to generals and delegating foreign policy to them.
6. Temperament. Obama has the coolest, calmest demeanor of any president since Eisenhower. Conservatism values that kind of constancy, especially compared with the hot-headed, irrational impulsiveness of McCain.
5. Faith. Obama’s fusion of Christianity and reason, his non-fundamentalist faith, is a critical bridge between the new atheism and the new Christianism.
4. A truce in the culture war. Obama takes us past the debilitating boomer warfare that has raged since the 1960s. Nothing has distorted our politics so gravely; nothing has made a rational politics more elusive.
3. Two words: President Palin.
2. Conservative reform. Until conservatism can get a distance from the big-spending, privacy-busting, debt-ridden, crony-laden, fundamentalist, intolerant, incompetent and arrogant faux conservatism of the Bush-Cheney years, it will never regain a coherent message to actually govern this country again. The survival of conservatism requires a temporary eclipse of today’s Republicanism. Losing would be the best thing to happen to conservatism since 1964. Back then, conservatives lost in a landslide for the right reasons. Now, Republicans are losing in a landslide for the wrong reasons.
1. The War Against Islamist terror. The strategy deployed by Bush and Cheney has failed. It has failed to destroy al Qaeda, except in a country, Iraq, where their presence was minimal before the US invasion. It has failed to bring any of the terrorists to justice, instead creating the excresence of Gitmo, torture, secret sites, and the collapse of America’s reputation abroad. It has empowered Iran, allowed al Qaeda to regroup in Pakistan, made the next vast generation of Muslims loathe America, and imperiled our alliances. We need smarter leadership of the war: balancing force with diplomacy, hard power with better p.r., deploying strategy rather than mere tactics, and self-confidence rather than a bunker mentality.
Those conservatives who remain convinced, as I do, that Islamist terror remains the greatest threat to the West cannot risk a perpetuation of the failed Manichean worldview of the past eight years, and cannot risk the possibility of McCain making rash decisions in the middle of a potentially catastrophic global conflict. If you are serious about the war on terror and believe it is a war we have to win, the only serious candidate is Barack Obama.
Justin
Nick, I had no idea you were so political. Some thoughts…
10. Let’s wait and see what percentage of black voters vote for McCain before we call for an end to “racial identity politics”.
9. The clear choice for fiscal conservatives lost in the primaries.
8. Maybe but we would still be electing a guy who has never made a real foreign policy decision.
7. “But the Senator from Illinois had laid down his marker: if elected President, he would be in charge. Unlike George W. Bush, who had given Petraeus complete authority over the war — an unprecedented abdication of presidential responsibility…Obama would insist on a rigorous chain of command.”
Doesn’t this quote mean the opposite of what you said? According to the article, it would be Obama who would make more of the decisions as opposed to Bush, who gave MORE control to the generals…I’m confused.
6. I don’t know Senator McCain or Senator Obama so I cant comment on their personalities.
5. Wow, this is a vote in his favor? The increasing secularization of religion is something that should sway a conservative voter?
4. That’s the same article as in #5 and its still too long for me to read.
3. haha, now there is a fair and balanced insight.
2. See now this I agree with, I would be a libertarian if they didn’t put forward weirdos like Bob Barr as their candidates. The problem is that in the next four years we will probably be replacing at least two Supreme Court Justices and we can ill afford two more justices who tend to legislate from the bench like Stevens or Ginsberg.
1. Really? Obama is the guy that’s going to be tough on terror? Honestly I could care less if France, Pakistan or anyone else “likes” us. What does that have to do with anything? The mere fact that all of those countries want Obama is a strike against him.
Honestly I didn’t vote for McCain in the primary and he wasn’t even my second choice and by all means I can see the appeal to Obama. He is young, well spoken, calm, good looking and the opposite of W. in many ways. If I were a liberal, it would be a slam dunk. But I’m not a liberal and I can’t imagine too many conservatives being won over by these arguments. At the end of the day, there really couldn’t be two more opposite candidates than these two guys. I am consistently amazed at the fact that there is still more than 10% of the country that are undecided. My only guess for those people is that they don’t really like either candidate and are praying for a miracle.
In Obama, you are talking about a guy who, in 2007, was the Senate’s most liberal voting Senator according to the National Journal. Again, if you are a liberal then he is your guy, but I can’t imagine how a conservative could vote for the most liberal guy in the Senate. There are far too many issues about which we have wildly different ideas and positions. The thing that no one is saying, and has maybe never been more apparent than in this race, is that liberals and conservatives have fundamentally different views of the world and drastically different ideas about how to arrive at their completely different goals. The questions of experience and temperament are childish and irrelevant when you have two candidates like these. So you are telling me that a staunch Conservative is going to vote for Obama because McCain is a hothead? Or is a liberal Manhattan Democrat going to vote for McCain because Obama has very little experience? No, they are going to vote with their ideology, as they always have and probably should. The only real voting is done in the primaries, after that the vast majority of people just vote with their party. The choice is simple, do you tend to be liberal or conservative? Answer that question and you have your candidate. I see so much of the differences between these two ideologies are irreconcilable. So much so that to me the debates, press conferences and the constant media coverage is ultimately doing little more than creating jobs for talking heads.
Wow, that’s the longest comment I have ever left and by far the most writing on politics I have ever done. Sorry about the rant.
Nick
@Justin – wow… um, give me a week to read that comment and respond hahahahahah
Nick
Oh, and BTW, I didn’t write any of it… Andrew Sullivan, a conservative pundit and blogger wrote it. I linked to his OP at the beginning of my post. Anyways, it seems everyday I hear/read about a conservative going Obama for one reason or another… just an observation.
keith jones
I just lost all respect for A. Sullivan.
Justin laid it out pretty well.
The only hope for conservatives is that Obama, playing the part of Carter, will cause a real conservative to win, playing the part of Reagan.
If Obama is elected with a Dem Hous and Senate it will take decades to undo the damage.
Nick
@Keith – at least that will be a few decades shorter than what it will take to clean up the mess GW and the Reps have put us in now!
Josh Barton
I just wanted to respond to Nick responding to keith: WOW!!!!!!!