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Carson City, NV - Pat Cattell, 71, is John McCain's contemporary and a lifelong Republican who switched to support Barack Obama. She said as she watched him accept the Democratic nomination for president that sees him as the future and presumptive Republican nominee John McCain as the past. She has her feet on the ground but her eyes stay fixed on the prize of an Obama victory in November. She was among nearly 30 Democrats at a house party Thursday evening here to hear and watch Obama's speech. She isn't anti-McCain. "A fine decent man," she said of the senator...

 True Republicans drawn to Obama Former congressman Leach's endorsement of the Democratic candidate in line with the GOP's original values John Nichols  —  8/27/2008 6:51 am   http://www.madison.com/tct/opinion/convention/302243 RIPON -- When former Iowa Congressman Jim Leach -- a Republican stalwart with close ties to the Bush family -- endorsed Democrat Barack Obama for president at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, he made a point of noting that he was not switching parties. "As a Republican, I stand before you with deep respect for the history and traditions of my political party. But it is clear to all Americans...

DENVER -- On a night when the wife of the presumptive Democratic nominee for president would take the stage at the Democratic National Convention following an address by the party's most revered elder statesman, it would be hard to imagine how a former congressman from eastern Iowa would even get notice, let alone high marks as one of the most important speeches of the night. Unless, of course, the former congressman was a Republican. So there was Jim Leach, former diplomat, friend of the Bush family and longtime Republican congressman from Iowa City, enjoying the enthusiastic response of thousands of...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Sen. Barack Obama isn't just inspiring black voters to register in large numbers as he gets closer to being the Democratic presidential nominee. Evidence indicates that he's motivating some black Republicans to switch parties. The only three states that track voting registration by party and race show black Republican registration dropping slightly since the beginning of the year.

I saw a Republicans for Obama bumper sticker the other day and couldn't help laughing out loud. Republicans for Obama is an oxymoron. Oil and water, fire and ice. Impossible. Then I stumbled across a news article about this craze that featured two "Republicans" who are supporting the O Man. Former GOP Senator Lincoln Chaffee, who put down the bong long enough to vote for John Kerry in 2004, and Jim Leach, former Iowa Congressman who always looks concerned, have jumped on the Obama bandwagon. Neither man is a conservative, and both were voted out of office, so this isn't...

Mr Obama is making a big pitch to Republicans. He has spoken glowingly of Ronald Reagan, is friendly to religious voters and has invested heavily in advertising and staffing not just in the swing states of the Midwest but also in such Republican strongholds as Texas. Yet there are a number of myths about "Obamacans" (as Mr Obama calls them) or "Obamacons" (as pundits do). Their numbers are overestimated and their import is misunderstood. It is neither on foreign policy nor on economics but on religious values that Mr Obama has made his big pitch to party-switchers. There has been...

Wednesday, August 13, 2008 Obama creates the illusion of Republicans for Obama: scrapes barrel with 2 unknown GOP discards & a NY lib with dodgy friends Democrats for McCain including many of the millions who form part of the Just Say No Deal/ PUMA/ and NoBama coalitions are providing a solid block of support for John McCain. Not to be outdone Obama today, with great media fanfare, announced his Republicans for Obama group. This is another desperate attempt to reassure Democrat super-delegates that Obama is commanding broad support across the country, especially from Republicans who Obama argues would never rally...

A trio of Republicans have defected from their party's likely presidential nominee and kicked off an effort to garner support for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. The group, called Republicans for Obama, is led by two moderate Republicans -- James Leach, a former U.S. representative from Iowa, and Lincoln Chafee, a former U.S. senator from Rhode Island -- along with Rita Hauser, a prominent fund-raiser for President George W. Bush. Their reasons for crossing party lines are diverse, ranging from the war in Iraq to overspending in Washington, and signal unhappiness not just with the candidacy of Republican Sen. John...

Barack Obama likes to talk about "Obamacans" -- Republicans who he says approach him at political events and quietly pledge their support for his presidential candidacy. On Tuesday, he snagged two more Republicans, but these were high-profile politicians willing to speak out on his behalf. The first was former U.S. Rep. Jim Leach of Iowa, who endorsed him during a conference call with reporters. Leach said he was concerned about the "current philosophy of government" and worried that John McCain would be "more of the same."

Barack Obama's campaign is rolling out a number of centrist Republicans who are endorsing the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee over Republican rival John McCain - in a show of his ability to win cross-over votes. A conference call Tuesday featured former Iowa Rep. Jim Leach, former White House intelligence adviser Rita Hauser and former Rhode Island Sen. Lincoln Chafee, who represented his state as a Republican, but switched to become a Democrat so he could vote for Obama in the primary. Leach predicted that a lot of Republicans and independents are going to be attracted by Obama's campaign. The Obama...

Leach, Chafee start ‘Republicans for Obama’ By Walter Alarkon Posted: 08/12/08 01:48 PM [ET] Former Republican Rep. Jim Leach (Iowa) and former GOP Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R.I.) touted Barack Obama as the presidential candidate who represents the traditional conservatism that they feel has been forgotten under President Bush. In an Obama campaign conference call Tuesday, during which Leach announced his endorsement of Sen. Obama (D-Ill.), the two former lawmakers tied presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) to Bush’s positions, particularly on the war in Iraq and spending.

Chuck Lasker, a political blogger and Internet consultant in Indiana, hosted a gathering last week of 20 people he calls "whispering Republicans" - party members like him who support Senator Barack Obama, a Democrat, for president. Over iced tea and brownies, the renegades took turns explaining why they liked Mr. Obama and recalling the strange stares from other Republicans. In recent weeks, Obama aides have met with Republican leaders in crucial states to strategize about wooing undecided voters. ... Mr. Obama is hardly a perfect candidate for Republicans. ... And the idea of a Barack Obama-Nancy Pelosi-Harry Reid triumvirate, should...

If anyone could lay claim totheir state's Republican Party, it's Deborah Burstion-Donbraye of Cleveland. The 53-year-old international business consultant is the former outreach director for the Ohio Republican Party, for starters. She helped deliver the swing state to President Bush in his 2004 re-election bid in which he garnered 16 percent of the black vote. Among her Republican credentials, Mrs. Burstion-Donbraye worked in several high-level positions during the Reagan and Bush administrations of the late 1980s and was the press secretary for George W. Bush's Texas gubernatorial campaign in 1994. In the 1980s, she was an assistant national desk editor...

President McCain in 2000 I must be one of the few conservative writers in cyberspace who never feared a McCain presidency. When Senator McCain looked like he might win the Republican nomination in 2000, I asked what, exactly, my friends were so worried about. McCain was honest, like Bush, while Clinton and Gore were steeped in moral slipperiness. McCain was pro-life, like Bush, while Clinton and Gore were pro-abortion. McCain, like Bush, supported a strong military, while Clinton famously “loathed” the military and Gore followed him like a trained poodle. McCain’s ACU (American Conservative Union) voting record is conservative and...

Larry Hunter claims he is a "lifelong conservative." Yet, in his recent New York Daily News article, he also says he is voting for Barack Obama for president. The two simply cannot coexist. One has to be obliterated in favor of the other. And, regardless of the facile reasoning Hunter gives for his apostasy, this article does nothing to support any supposed conservative cause. It does, however, give the media something to crow about. Larry Hunter begins by assuring us of his conservative credentials. A supply sider from the Reagan White House, Hunter had a 5-year-long stint as chief economist...

The judiciary is becoming an important election issue. John McCain is warning conservatives that control of today's finely balanced Supreme Court depends on his election. Unfortunately, his jurisprudence is likely to be anything but conservative. The idea of a "living Constitution" long has been popular on the political left. Conservatives routinely dismiss such result-oriented justice, denouncing "judicial activism" and proclaiming their fidelity to "original intent." However, many Republicans, like Mr. McCain, are just as result-oriented as their Democratic opponents. They only disagree over the result desired. Judge-made rights are wrong because there is no constitutional warrant behind them. The Constitution...

Here I posted about a Democrat Barack Obama supporter in Pennsylvania trying to pass herself off as a "lifelong republican". Well, here is yet another one, this time in North Carolina. First, an excerpt from the Charlotte Observer, titled "Obama Sends A Message": Obama seemed to be reaching out to many of the working class voters who voted for Clinton in the Democratic primary. He shared a stage with Pamella Cash-Roper, a 54-year old licensed nurse from Pittsboro, who along with her husband is unemployed after both had heart surgery. Cash-Roper said she was forced to cash out her 401(k)...

John McCain's Navy Flight Instructor Weighs In International Politics [This is a DumpMcCain.com/SiaNews.com EXCLUSIVE] May 19, 2008 Greetings! I was John McCain's Navy Flight Instructor --- in formation tactics and air-to-air-gunnery. I could write a book about this man. Suffice to state, I shudder (and I'm fearless) at the nightmare thought of this man becoming our next President and Commander in Chief. I am not alone as to this man's former shipmates, instructors and senior officers --- as to who and what this man is really all about. Although politics is really theater and the best performing actor gets to...

Key to Obama's strength in California, at this point, is the group that was largely ignored in the run-up to the primary: men. Overall, Obama held a 10-point advantage over McCain among men, while Clinton split men with McCain. White men gave McCain a three-point advantage over Obama, and a wider 15-point edge over Clinton. Nonwhite men sided with the Democrats in landslide proportions. With Republicans now only about one-third of the California electorate, GOP candidates must reach deeply into the ranks of moderates if they are to win statewide. There, McCain was faltering. He was losing moderates to Clinton...

MoveOn.org sponsored a contest for the best 30-second pro-Barack Obama TV commercial. The winner, according to the Associated Press's article, "MoveOn ad features pro-Obama Republican," was an ad starring Air Force veteran John Weiler. The spot includes Mr. Weiler, whose military service is to be commended, saying "I've been a Republican since before I could actually vote." Not only that: "I'm a lifelong Republican and I'm voting for Barack Obama." I don't know if Mr. Weiler is a lifelong Republican as he claims. I do know that if the Associated Press is accurate in its reporting, he must have been...