Jeffrey Hart for Obama????!!??
EmailThis will only mean something to conservatives and Dartmouth alumni, but I was shocked — literally shocked, not Claude Raines “shocked” — to hear that Jeffrey Hart is backing Barack Obama.
The Valley News has more on that HERE, but the bottom line is Hart — a former speechwriter for Nixon and Reagan, a founder of the Dartmouth Review, and an opponent of the Iraq war — sees himself as one of the many conservatives “fed up with the partisan excesses and wrangling of the last two decades and eager for a practical, cooperative approach to the issues that have divided Washington,” as the VN describes him.
He sees McCain as too militaristic and Romney as too craven.
This is stunning news, seriously. Hat tip to the always interesting Andrew. (LINK)
Anyway, am sitting in a car in Nashville, Tenn., waiting to go live for GMA Saturday. I can’t believe we found an open Starbucks.
– jpt
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Great news!! Sen.Obama is changing everybody’s lives uniting all Americans. Keep it up!
Posted by: carmen | February 2, 2008, 12:10 pm 12:10 pm
Hillarybots will hate this. I hear the death throes of a dynasty.
Posted by: dionysus | February 2, 2008, 1:31 pm 1:31 pm
Obama is not ready to be president, and not even going to pull this off. I would love to see a qualified candidate whose efforts supports his hype… I’m black and frankly any white candidate with the same credentials and campaign would have been out of the race months ago. Sad that Americans are thirsty to jump on risky bandwagon.
Posted by: awake | February 2, 2008, 1:45 pm 1:45 pm
Obama supporters have this unshakable fantasy that it will be one big love fest between the right and the left under his administration. Hillary has already been vetted by conservative enemies, not Obama. Once Obama becomes president, it won’t be long before conservatives pull out their very sharp knives and eviscerate him and his presidency just like they did to Clinton in 1992. Hillary, on the other hand, can handle anything they throw at her if she becomes president.
Posted by: Joseph | February 2, 2008, 1:59 pm 1:59 pm
Obama campaign is all about change, and I think that his lack of political experience is actually a good thing. The president we have now went into office with “experience” and now he has one of the lowest approval ratings ever. The point is, Obama’s lack of experience will allow him to actually CHANGE things, do things a little different- all in all, it’s a good thing.
Posted by: Hellogoodbye | February 3, 2008, 2:30 pm 2:30 pm
C’mon, Jake! If you had ever bothered to sit through Hart’s lectures on the Augustan Age, or visit him in his office, you would have realized that the man was not an ideologue (and, hence, was hard to pin down). He is and has always been the very embodiment of opposition to ideology — whether of the Right or or the Left.
So this news about his support for Obama should not shock or stun you. Hart is unpredictable — an ornery, independent and non-partisan thinker. His writings over the years clearly demonstrate this.
Oh, and BTW, Hart was not a founder of the Dartmouth Review (which was founded exclusively by students) but, rather, its adviser. He continues to be, however, a Senior Editor of National Review.
Cheers!
Posted by: Bill | February 10, 2008, 5:31 pm 5:31 pm