Conservative for Obama (Douglas Kmiec - Update)

[Tesibria]

Context for Journal Entries: I'm in the process of compiling all the columns/articles written by "conservatives" either (a) against McCain/Palin, or (b) for Obama/Biden. Yes, I know that many are frequently posted in the Editorials or Other Articles. However, they're always mixed in with the many articles on other topics and I, personally want a "set" all in one place, for easy reference when discussing issues with conservatives. So, I'm posting them in my journal.

Note: I earlier posted a reference to this endorsement, but had not located the actual endorsement. As time has expired to edit that entry, I'm including the actual endorsement in this new post.

Convictions: Endorsing Obama
By: Douglas Kmiec, Slate.com, March 23, 2008

Today I endorse Barack Obama for president of the United States. I believe him to be a person of integrity, intelligence, and genuine good will. I take him at his word that he wants to move the nation beyond its religious and racial divides and that he wants to return the United States to that company of nations committed to human rights. ....

This endorsement may be of little note or consequence, except perhaps that it comes from an unlikely source: namely, a former constitutional legal counsel to two Republican presidents. ...Nevertheless, it is important to be said publicly in a public forum in order that it be understood. It is not arrived at without careful thought and some difficulty.
***
No doubt some of my friends will see this (endorsement) as a matter of party or intellectual treachery. I regret that, and I respect their disagreement. But they will readily agree that as Republicans, we are first Americans. As Americans, we must voice our concerns for the well-being of our nation without partisanship when decisions that have been made endanger the body politic. Our president has involved our nation in a military engagement without sufficient justification or a clear objective. In so doing, he has incurred both tragic loss of life and extraordinary debt jeopardizing the economy and the well-being of the average American citizen. In pursuit of these fatally flawed purposes, the office of the presidency, which it was once my privilege to defend in public office formally, has been distorted beyond its constitutional assignment. Today, I do no more than raise the defense of that important office anew, but as private citizen.

Sept. 11 and the radical Islamic ideology that it represents is a continuing threat to our safety, and the next president must have the honesty to recognize that it, as author Paul Berman has written, "draws on totalitarian inspirations from 20th-century Europe and with its double roots, religious and modern, perversely intertwined. ... wields a lot more power, intellectually speaking, then naïve observers might suppose." Sen. Obama needs to address this extremist movement with the same clarity and honesty with which he has addressed the topic of race in America. Effective criticism of the incumbent for diverting us from this task is a good start, but it is incomplete without a forthright outline of a commitment to undertake, with international partners, the formation of a worldwide entity that will track, detain, prosecute, convict, punish, and thereby stem radical Islam's threat to civil order. I await Sen. Obama's more extended thinking upon this vital subject as he accepts the nomination of his party and engages Sen. McCain in the general campaign discussion to come.

Per other DU-ers' requests, I'm cross-posting links to these articles in the Research Forum: Conservatives Against McCain/Palin and Conservatives For Obama/Biden.

[democracy1st]

1. K & R thanks before this election is over this info will become very useful