Is it any wonder Colin Powell came out and endorsed Barack Obama. In truth, there is very little surprising in his announcement due in large part to his antipathy for the Bush machine that McCain has surrounded himself with, but more so because it seems every Republican seems to be jumping ship. It seems as if every day brings news of some hard-line Republican endorsing Obama like Buckley Jr., Powell, etc., or is predicting the defeat of McCain, like David Frum or Peggy Noonan.
The GOP, for 14 years has been a bastion of solidarity. From 1994 to 2000 they stood lockstep in opposition to the Clinton White House. Finally in 2000 they again rose to power under Bush and decided that the only way they would remain in power was to tow the company line and that they did, which is what led us both to the economic debacle we're now in, but also the chance to revitalize America under the stewardship of Barack. Out of the ashes of neo-conservative corruption and cronyism, we have a chance to actually make the changes that this country so desperately needs. Meanwhile the good ship Republican is sinking fast under idealogical infighting.
The Republican Party seems to be now fractured in to three distinct camps. The smallest camp is John McCain, and what few, if any, true followers he has left. It seems that for all of McCain's bluster of not being Bush, he sure has surrounded himself with a lot of the same people Bush did. McCain is essentially fighting a one-man campaign now. The centrists and true conservatives have either abandoned him, are going to abandon him, or are simply paying lip service. They have left in droves due to McCain's refusal to kick out the Rove-Cheney gang, which is another state within a state in the GOP. The neo-cons within the Party have flown so high over the last eight years they failed, or didnt care to, see the damage their policy was doing to the country's economy. Now they're paying the price trying to run a campaign for an outsider, a man who isn't one of them. But they aren't the ones jumping ship since they don't have anything to jump to. They are stuck with what they have created and they know it, and now they're using every dirty underhanded trick to make sure that their "girl" gets a chance to keep the neo-con agenda alive.
Which leads us to the last camp, the old school Republicans who sold their souls to the Devil(Cheney?)for a return to power and are now trapped under the giant house of cards they helped to build. They are lost, with no political leadership and are hoping to ride Obama's coattails for a little credibility on Main Street. That's why so many of them are coming out with tacit support for Obama while others are simply refusing to acknowledge McCain in public. The GOP, even in the unlikely event that McCain can pull off a win, is effectively in shambles with two camps pulling in opposite directions. Having seen what a solid GOP has done to this country, I hope it stays that way.