"Obamacons" continue to pile up, Powell, Sullivan, Smirconish, Schaeffer, Buckley

UPDATE:


An avalanche of ordinary Obamacons.


If you were trapped in the Andes Mountains after a horrible plane crash and spent the weekend eating your fellow passengers in order to survive then you missed Colin Powell's endorsement of Senator Obama. It's kind of a big deal i guess, Powell being a former appointee of Bush the First, incredibly popular former Joint Cheif of Staff of the US military during the first Iraq war, Bush the Second's Secretary of State who told the UN all about the weapons of mass destruction that later turned out to be non-existent, an (until this weekend) darling of the right wing teevee and radio hosts, a registered Republican etc etc etc.

But there have been many other fairly influential conservatives who have been saying enough is enough is enough is enough and have decided that, for this election at least, to hit for the other team and have chosen to endorse Barack. Here is a shaort list of Republican and independent conservatives who have said they will NOT be voting for the Republican candidate this time around:

Michael Smerconish - "For the first time since registering as a Republican 28 years ago, I'm voting for a Democrat for president. I may have been an appointee in the George H.W. Bush administration, and master of ceremonies for George W. Bush in 2004, but last Saturday I stood amid the crowd at an Obama event in North Philadelphia. Five considerations have moved me:" "I've decided"

Andrew sullivan

Scott McClellan - Former Bush aide voting for Obama

Frank Scheaffer

Former Republican Minnesota Gov. Arne Carlson has endorsed Obama

Buckley

Ken Alderman - Why a Staunch Conservative Like Me Endorsed Obama

CC Goldwater -Why McCain Has Lost Our Vote

The libertarian former governor of Massachusetts William Weld said he's never endorsed a Democrat for president before, but in the last six weeks or so, it became "close to a no-brainer."

Chicago tribune - "The Chicago Tribune endorsed Barack Obama Friday, marking the first time in the paper's 161-year history it has backed a Democrat for president."

William Randolph - "When I read something like this, it makes me realize: there are only so many times I can tell people that I'm a conservative, but not that kind of conservative before it becomes clear that I'm using the wrong word. Like all words, the meaning of “conservative” emerges from a complex communal process. It's not mine to control. So do I spend the next few years putting the word in dissociative quotation marks? Or do I just let it go free, knowing that if the word does not come back, then we were never meant to be together in the first place?"

It might be fun to try to keep the word for contrarian purposes, or just out of sheer stubbornness, but: what's the point?