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Conservatives And Obama

24 Mar 2008 07:33 am

In a comment thread on the Volokh Conspiracy about Douglas Kmiec's endorsement of Obama, there was the usual refrain of "obviously, Kmiec is nuts/dishonest/traitorous/stupid". Then there was this response:

I'd encourage anyone who's interested in more than knee-jerk reactions to actually read Kmiec's piece, and actually read The Audacity of Hope, and actually read Senator Obama's position summaries online; and seriously ask why a prominent, intelligent conservative would endorse Obama. I'd go so far as to suggest that, for those of us interested in forward-thinking conservatism, Senator Obama provides the best hope since Reagan.

He's the only candidate that has the potential, and an expressed desire, to change the debate and actually face questions like: when should government intervene at all? when it does, how can it be useful and limited? We might not agree with all of Senator Obama's answers, but he's the only one that I've seen even express an interest in wrestling with the questions.

A Dish reader comments:

I'm a liberal, but this captures for me the reason why my support of Obama is not just as a liberal supporting a liberal candidate, but as an American who wants to move our country forward, supporting a candidate who poses a better chance to do so than I've seen in my lifetime.

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