More and more conservatives — real conservatives — are abandoning John McCain. They respect his service to the nation. They revere him for his patriotism, his POW past, his willingness to break with party leaders to do what the country really needed at key moments.
But the anger about McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate is substantial.
There is evidence of this all around — but lately, former AEI scholar and conservative attorney Allan Gerson’s interesting piece on why Jeanne Kirkpatrick probably would have supported Barack Obama adds to the chorus.
But something that is very off color and that I should discreetly report is what one of the most well-known conservative commentators in the world said to me privately in Chicago. I won’t report the name of the individual, but he/she said:
What are we to think of McCain’s choice of Palin? It’s outrageous — an insult to the nation and an insult to everything the man has supposedly stood for all his life.
McCain’s decision is right up there in the history books — right up there with Caligula appointing his horse to the Senate.
No self-respecting conservative can support McCain now.
I want to make clear that I do not agree with this commentator. Sarah Palin is Governor of Alaska. There are actually far, far less qualified people that John McCain could have picked to run with him. Joe the Plumber comes to mind.
But I offer this comment from a well-known conservative personality as a benchmark of the anger out there in Bush Land about John McCain.
— Steve Clemons
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