Mr. Right?

by Bruce Bartlett - June 11th, 2008 - The New Republic

A broad swath of the [conservative] movement has been in open revolt against George W. Bush -- and the Republican Party establishment -- for some time. They don't much care for the Iraq war or the federal government's vast expansion over the last seven-and-a-half years. And, in the eyes of these discontents, the nomination of John McCain only confirmed the continuation of the worst of the Bush-era deviations from first principles.

[snip]

In nearly every quarter of the movement, you can find conservatives irate over the Iraq war--a war they believe transgresses core principles. And it's this frustration with the war--and McCain's pronouncements about victory at any cost--that has led many conservatives into Obama's arms. Francis Fukuyama, the neoconservative theorist, recently told an Australian journalist that he would reluctantly vote for Obama to hold the Republican Party accountable "for a big policy failure" in Iraq.

I see Obama as Marxist and anti-free enterprise, totally committed to redistribution of wealth, elitist and surrounded by radicals whose anti-America extremism will dominate his administration.

I am appalled that there are people who profess to be libertarians or conservatives who think the rhetorical flourishes of his speeches will make up for the core convictions of his most ardent followers. The very fact that people who profess to believe in libertarian commitment to individual liberty can embrace Obama, is proof to me that our nation has lost its collective will to remain free.