Novak: Colin Powell likely will endorse Obama

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GOP DEFECTIONS!!



http://www.suntimes.com/news/novak/1025358,CST-EDT-novak26.article


BY ROBERT NOVAK Sun-Times Columnist

What is an "Obamacon?" The phrase surfaced in January to describe British Conservatives entranced by Barack Obama. On March 13, the American Spectator broadened the term to cover all "conservative supporters" of the Democratic presidential candidate. Their ranks, though growing, feature few famous people. But looming on the horizon are two big potential Obamacons: Colin Powell and Chuck Hagel.

Neither Powell, first-term secretary of state for George W. Bush, nor Hagel, retiring after two terms as U.S. senator from Nebraska, has endorsed Obama. Hagel probably never will. Powell likely will enter Obama's camp at a time of his own choosing. The best bet is that neither will back John McCain in 2008.

Powell, Hagel and lesser-known Obamacons harbor no animosity toward McCain. Nor do they show much affection for the rigidly liberal Obama. The Obamacon syndrome is based on hostility to Bush and his administration and revulsion over today's Republican Party. The danger for McCain is that desire for a therapeutic electoral bloodbath can get out of control.

That danger was highlighted in a New Republic article on "the rise of the Obamacons" by supply-side economist Bruce Bartlett, an official in the Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations. He expressed "disgust with a Republican Party that still does not see how badly George W. Bush has misgoverned this country" -- echoing his scathing 2006 book on George W. Bush. While Bartlett says, "I'm not ready to join the other side," his anti-Bush furor characterizes the Obamacons.

The prototypical Obamacon may be Larry Hunter, an ardent supply-sider. When it became known recently that Hunter supports Obama, fellow conservatives were stunned. Hunter was fired as U.S. Chamber of Commerce chief economist in 1993 when he would not swallow Clinton administration policy, and later joined Jack Kemp at Empower America.

Explaining his support for the uncompromising liberal Obama, Hunter blogged: "The Republican Party is a dead rotting carcass with a few decrepit old leaders stumbling around like zombies in a horror version of "Weekend With Bernie," handcuffed to a corpse."

Colin Powell is said by friends to share Hunter's analysis of the GOP. His tenuous 13-year relationship with the Republican Party, after his retirement from the Army, has ended. The national security adviser for Reagan left the present administration bitter about being ushered out of the State Department a year earlier than he wanted. As an African American, friends say, Powell is sensitive to racial attacks on Obama, and especially his wife. While McCain strategists shrug off defections from Bartlett and Hunter, they wince in anticipation of headlines about Powell's expected endorsement of Obama.