Mac Zilber
Everybody has heard about the Colin Powell endorsement by now, but the less-covered story since is the quantity of prominent conservatives who have been endorsing Barack Obama, including one McCain advisor who announced his support today. This thread will be used to track notable endorsements that Obama has received from candidates outside of his party (I’d do the same thing for McCain, but the list would be one name long: Joe Lieberman).
Susan Eisenhower – A Republican national security expert and the granddaughter of president Dwight Eisenhower.
Colin Powell – National Security advisor, chairman of the JCS, and Secretary of state, Powell is the most prominent voice on national security in the last two decades. He worked for the last three Republican presidents.
Michael Smerconish – A conservative radio-host and a HUD appointee in the George H.W. Bush administration.
The LA Times – A newspaper that had never endorsed a Democrat before.
Christopher Buckley – The son of Republican icon William F. Buckley, and a writer for Buckley’s conservative magazine the National Review.
The Chicago Tribune – A newspaper that had never endorsed a Democrat before.
Scott McLellan – Former Bush press secretary who wrote a tell-all book a couple of months ago.
Arne Carlson – Former Republican governor of Minnesota.
Cici Goldwater and her siblings – Not so much a prominent politician as a symbolic endorsement, Republican icon Barry Goldwater’s grandchildren have endorsed Barack Obama.
Charles Fried – A former advisor of John McCain, Fried was the solicitor general for Ronald Reagan (this is not a well-known position, but it is an incredibly powerful one), assistant attorney general under Reagan, former justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Court.
Tacit Endorsements (endorsements that are assumed, but not outwardly stated):
Gordon Smith – The Republican senator from Oregon, Smith has tied himself to Obama, Kennedy, Kerry, and Wyden in his advertisements.
Chuck Hagel – A Republican senator from Nebraska who opposes the Iraq war, Hagel has refused to endorse John McCain, and has appeared at events with Barack Obama.
Dick Lugar – The Republican senator from Indiana, Lugar has said that he prefers Obama’s foreign policy to McCain’s, and is often discussed as a potential cabinet-member for Obama.
This list only continues to grow, and belies the problems that the McCain campaign is facing. Every candidate in every election gets a couple apostates from the other party, like Lieberman and Dan Boren for McCain or Zell Miller and Ed Koch for George Bush, but it’s rare that so many switch over except in a wave election. The scary thing for McCain is that 11 of these endorsements have happened in the span of about a week. This list will be updated if/when new Republican endorsements are announced.
And to assuage concerns of bias, I will also mention new Democratic endorsements of McCain if they occur.
