"Obama has said that he will have a foreign policy like Ronald Reagan's."

There are no omens of victory for John McCain. While Barack Obama can
concentrate on campaigning in swing states like Missouri, John McCain is
forced to work the crowds in red states which should be firmly in his column
at this late stage in the campaign. Not one poll shows McCain victories in
enough of the right states for him to be elected.

Everyone loves a winner. Perhaps that is why so many conservatives are
jumping on the Obama bandwagon. McCain is a goner and they know it. Yet
there is something else at work here. Barack Obama has exceeded expectations
in soothing the concerns of the racist, imperialist mindset. Right wingers
who openly follow the doctrine of America's right to empire and conquest are
now endorsing Obama.

Christopher Buckley [1], son of the late William Buckley, broke ranks with
his fellow conservatives and endorsed Barack Obama, declaring that he will
vote for a Democrat for the first time in his life. Unlike others in the
openly racist right wing, Buckley can see the forest for the trees. He
doesn't care if the president has the middle name Hussein. Obama has made it
clear that he will maintain white America's right to moral exception by
continuing its war machine and allowing the criminals who destroyed the
financial system to keep their set at the table.

"Buckley is certain that Obama will not make waves."

Buckley has no doubts about Obama. "But having a first-class temperament and
a first-class intellect, President Obama will (I pray, secularly) surely
understand that traditional left-politics aren't going to get us out of this
pit we've dug for ourselves." So certain is Buckley that Obama will not make
waves, that he bid good-bye to his friends and resigned from the National
Review, the conservative publication founded by his father.

Another Christopher, Christopher Hitchens [2], has likewise seen the path
to victory pointing in Obama's direction. Hitchens used to call himself a
leftist, a Trotskyite in fact. Hitchens realized that he would be a much
hotter commodity if he eschewed his political positions and became a
professional white man. He now spends his time writing endlessly hateful
screeds defending America's war of terror and looking for new reasons to
kill brown skinned people who pray towards Mecca.

Hitchens spent the early part of the campaign year showing open disdain for
Obama, his former pastor and for Michelle Obama's [3] senior thesis. He
foamed at the mouth at every utterance of Rev. Jeremiah Wright [4], calling
his words ". . . wicked and stupid and false . . ."

The McCain campaign death march and Obama's consistent promise to change
very little have swayed Hitchens to switch sides again. He opines that ". .
. the Obama-Biden ticket is not a capitulationist one." In other words, they
will keeping killing Iraqis and Afghans, giving Hitchens confidence that his
endorsement will not be in vain.

"Hitchens now spends his time writing endlessly hateful screeds defending
America's war of terror."

These endorsements are partly a result of the critically ill Republican
brand, but Obama must get much of the credit for the eleventh hour
conversions. He has said that he will have a foreign policy like Ronald
Reagan's. He makes it clear he will address black people directly only when
chastisement is on the agenda. If anyone has doubts, the sight of Obama
campaign commercials featuring one or two black faces, Obama's included,
seal the deal for the two Christophers and their friends.

What will Progressives for Obama have to say about the conservative pitching
and wooing for their candidate? If past history is any indication, they and
other progressives will say nothing at all. They made a decision to collude
with the Obama agenda that progressives ought to oppose. The praises of
Buckley and Hitchens will have no effect on them any more than the pledges
to keep troops in Iraq or to escalate the war in Afghanistan.

Obama will make history in more ways than one. He won't just be the first
black president. He will be the first president in modern history who
convinced millions of people not to believe the words that came out of his
own mouth. "Change" is the campaign slogan, but his policy agenda tells us
we will see anything but that. Hitchens and Buckley are certainly convinced
that there won't be any changes that aren't to their liking.



Margaret Kimberley's Freedom Rider column appears weekly in BAR. Ms.
Kimberley lives in New York City, and can be reached via e-Mail at
Margaret.Kimberley(at)BlackAgandaReport.Com. Ms. Kimberley maintains an
edifying and frequently updated blog at freedomrider.blogspot.com [5]. More
of her work is also available at her Black Agenda Report archive [6] page.



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End notes:
[1]  http://thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2008-10-10/the-conservative-case-for-obama/2/
[2]  http://www.slate.com/id/2202163/
[3]  http://www.slate.com/id/2190589/
[4]  http://www.slate.com/id/2187277/
[5]  http://freedomrider.blogspot.com/
[6]  http://www.blackagendareport.com/archives/mk/mkhome.php