Yesterday we had Colin Powell endorsing Barack Obama. And today, via George Packer, we learn that uber-hawk Ken Adelman is going to vote for Obama.
Now, the thing here is that Adelman’s choice, while not nearly as politically consequential, is a much, much bigger surprise than Powell’s. Powell’s informal support for Obama has been an open secret for some time. And he was always an outlier in George W. Bush’s world of petulant unilateralism.
Not Adelman. Without putting too fine a point on it, the kind of ‘shoot first and ask questions later’, ‘we’re going to democratize your ass’ foreign policy that McCain comes to by way of personality disorder is one Adelman has been espousing as a matter of considered principle for more than thirty years.
So what’s his beef exactly?
You can read his email to Packer for the full details. But the gist seems to be that watching McCain over the last two months, Adelman decided he just lacks the temperament and judgment to be president.
RNC New Mexico GOP gets caught red-handed mid-bamboozle hawking a phony vote fraud story.
Hmmm.
From Politico …
Rep. Christopher Smith, a Republican who has represented central New Jersey since 1980, probably didn’t realize he was walking into a political minefield when his family requested a break on his daughter’s huge college bill.
Smith’s daughter, who until recently lived with him in the family’s Herndon, Va., home, obtained in-state tuition privileges at a prestigious Virginia university — saving the Smiths $20,000 per year off the $29,000 tuition charged to out-of-state students.
But what Smith saved in cash could end up costing him politically – Democrats says the claim to Virginia residency shows that Smith is out of touch with the New Jersey constituents he’s supposed to represent.
McCain: Our Bill Ayers-themed robocalls are “absolutely accurate.” That and the day’s other news in the TPM Election Central Morning Roundup.
U.S. Special Counsel Scott Bloch — he of Geeks on Call fame, among other notorieties — will leave office in January.