Kmiec Endorses ObamaMike Rappaport

My former boss and colleague at OLC, Doug Kmiec, has endorsed Obama for President.  Doug is in the main a conservative Republican, and so this endorsement is big news.  Knowing Doug, I can't say I expected this, but I also don't find it all that surprising.

In a way, Doug and I have similar views.  I also cannot endorse McCain and at present do not plan to vote for him.  But to vote for Obama (or Hillary for that matter)?  No way.  The gulf between Doug and me is large.   Doug writes:

I do have confidence that the Senator will cast his net widely in search of men and women of diverse, open-minded views and of superior intellectual qualities to assist him in the wide range of responsibilities that he must superintend.

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.

I am not entirely sure what Doug means by all this.  Perhaps it is to imply that Obama will take a high tone and will try not to demonize his political enemies.  I think that is likely, but not all that comforting.  If Doug believes that Obama will not govern as a pretty strong liberal, I would like to know the evidence for that. 

Comments

[Paul McKaskle]

Doug and "me"?

[Greg Saybolt]

As "Doug and me" are both objects of the preposition 'between', the use of the objective case is correct.

[dearieme]

"between you and I" is a type of error I've seen called a "genteelism". Surely no red-blooded American blah, blah, blah.

[krome]

"I do have confidence that the Senator will cast his net widely in search of men and women of diverse, open-minded views and of superior intellectual qualities to assist him in the wide range of responsibilities that he must superintend."

I am curious as to why he thinks Obama would do this. He has never given any hint of this in his past conduct (as a highly party-line leftish Democrat in the Illinois legislature). The guy speaks well, and he makes lots of appeals to unity - but his past conduct indicates that his "unity" would consist soley of everyone coming to his far left position (or being marginalized as an evil 'racist').

[Tom Smith]

With all due respect to Professor Kmeic, I view this as a fairly transparent effort to cosy up to the person the Professor has calculated will be the next POTUS. Every administration needs one or a few ambassadors from the other empire at its court, and I guess that Kmeic has just tossed his hat in the ring for that post. He probably also views Obama as religious, as he is. And maybe he has gotten nowhere with McCain's people.

Obama is a charismatic guy, no doubt about that. Geraldine Ferraro displayed her usual wooden-headedness in her comment that he got where he was partly by being black, which is not true, or barely true, unless she thinks black people are naturally charismatic. Any fool should be able to see Obama is one of the most charismatic politicians we have seen since, well, I don't know, because if you go back and look at JFK, you can see he was not that great a speaker, and relied mostly on a pure play to class and good looks, which the national soul was very vulnerable to in the '60s. TV was new and all that. Obama is way special, beyond his color. His debate against Hillary should have been stopped by TKO. To me, this is all the more reason to fear him. Charisma in politics is a bad thing, serving only to excite the weak minded. Unfortunately, it is not to be underestimated. So possibly, Kmeic is just the latest victim of the Obama swoon. And he may be tired of the long, hard road right wingers have to travel in California. He will get invited to many more, and much nicer parties now. And I don't blame him a bit for that. I wish I were in a position so that merely by coming out for Obama, I would get invited to a bunch of nice parties. I wouldn't do it, because with kids, carpooling, etc., I don't have time for parties, but if I did, I would definitely give it some thought. I wouldn't do it in the end, of course, but it would be pusillanimous to begrudge a fellow his little share of the California Dream. Or maybe that's not it at all, but I do remember Kmeic on the Lehrer News Hour, along with Kathleen Sullivan, singing Justice O'Connor's praises in a way that forced me to leave the room.

Though I am mad at McCain for sucking up to anti-Catholics, I am calmer now and may still vote for him. This because I see Obama as a Man of the Left, and I see no reason whatever to doubt his sincerity. People with very special talents and extremely wrong views are quite dangerous. If your heart is telling you to support Obama, it is time to tell your heart to shut up. Perhaps Kmeic is listening to the wrong organ.