Former GOP Presidential Adviser Endorses Obama
He himself admits that it might not be an endorsement of any meaning - unlike the one made last Friday by New Mexico governor Bill Richardson. But Douglas Kmiec says it may be of note is that it is being made by a former constitutional legal counsel to two Republican presidents -- Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.
Kmiec, a former adviser to the Romney campaign, wrote in Slate.com on Sunday that he arrived at his decision to back Obama because he takes Obama "at his word that he wants to move the nation beyond its religious and racial divides and to return United States to that company of nations committed to human rights."
Kmiec, a Catholic, say he still believes in limited government, the right to life, the traditional family model and that the separation of church and state doesn't always mean the complete exclusion of religion from the public sphere.
"In various ways, Senator Barack Obama and I may disagree on aspects of these important fundamentals, but I am convinced based upon his public pronouncements and his personal writing that on each of these questions he is not closed to understanding opposing points of view, and as best as it is humanly possible, he will respect and accommodate them.
"No doubt some of my friends will see this as a matter of party or intellectual treachery. I regret that and I respect their disagreement. But they will readily agree that as Republicans, we are first Americans. As Americans, we must voice our concerns for the well-being of our nation without partisanship when decisions that have been made endanger the body politic. Our president has involved our nation in a military engagement without sufficient justification or clear objective. In so doing, he has incurred both tragic loss of life and extraordinary debt jeopardizing the economy and the well-being of the average American citizen. In pursuit of these fatally flawed purposes, the office of the presidency, which it was once my privilege to defend in public office formally, has been distorted beyond its constitutional assignment. Today, I do no more than raise the defense of that important office anew, but as private citizen."
Turns out that some of his Republican friends do disagree with his position. Paul Mirengoff writes at the conservative PowerLine blog writes that Kmiec's endorsement of Obama is "one of the most vacuous statements I've ever read." He adds "why conservatives should vote for a candidate who probably respects conservative views, instead of a candidate who more often than not agrees with them, Kmiec never explains."
2:21 PM ET | 03-24-2008 | permalink
