'Republicans for Obama' launch search for converts
GOP Obama backer pushes Hagel for VP
Several prominent Republicans on Tuesday unveiled an effort to convert GOP voters into backers of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, saying only he would be able to return America to the right course in the world and break from eight years of disastrous policies from President Bush.
"A very large number of us feel deeply that John McCain -- good a man as he is -- will be a continuation of Bush," said Rita Hauser, a prominent fundraiser for Bush's 2000 campaign who served on a White House intelligence advisory board after 9/11. "It's hard to walk away from your party's nominee, but you have to put your country first."
Hauser was joined by former Rep. Jim Leach (R-IA) and former Sen. Lincoln Chafee, who left the Republican party earlier this year to vote for Obama in Rhode Island's pimary, on a conference call sponsored by the campaign Tuesday. The "Obamacans" said McCain, the GOP nominee, would continue the bellicose bullying that's become a hallmark of Bush and Vice President Cheney's interactions with the rest of the world.
"It is not traditional Republicanism to make war on anyone who disagrees with you," said Hauser, who endorsed Democrat John Kerry in 2004 because of her opposition to the Iraq war.
Leach praised Obama for offering a change that would renew the country's core values and move away from "politics as usual." The Iowa Republican several times mentioned his hope that Obama would expand that emphasis by picking as a running mate Chuck Hagel, the Republican senator from Nebraska.
Hagel, a Vietnam veteran who has been willing to buck GOP orthodoxy, also is close friends with McCain. The Nebraskan, who is leaving the Senate at year's end, has not announced his endorsement for the coming election and he was not among those Republicans announcing their support for Obama Tuesday.
"I just hope he's considered for veep," Leach said.
The Republican Obama backers said they would be launching a Web site in the next few days aimed at connecting GOP defectors and encouraging more to buck McCain's candidacy. They said they would emphasize how McCain has lost his former independent streak over the course of this campaign, where he now seems to be angling for a third Bush term.
Chafee listed for one example his reversal on Bush's tax cuts and said the Arizona senator was selling out his values.
"Seeing the two different John McCain's is a fracture in his credibility in my view," Chafee said. "That's a huge issue for us."
With wire reports
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