Politico.com: Bush backer pens pro-Obama book (6/16/08)
The conservative Evangelical biographer of George W. Bush and Tom DeLay has moved on to a new subject: Barack Obama. And his new book, due out this summer, may lend credibility to Senator Obama’s bid to win Evangelical Christian voters away from the Republican Party.
The forthcoming volume from Stephen Mansfield, whose sympathetic “The Faith of George W. Bush” spent 15 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list in 2004, is titled “The Faith of Barack Obama.” Its tone ranges from gently critical to gushing, and the author defends Obama-and even his controversial former minister, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright-from conservative critics, and portrays him as a compelling figure for Christian voters.
“Young Evangelicals are saying, ‘Look, I’m pro-life but I’m looking at a guy who’s first of all black-and they love that; two, who’s a Christian; and three who believes faith should bear on public policy,” Mansfield, who described himself as a conservative Republican, said in a telephone interview. “They disagree with him on abortion, but they agree with him on poverty, on the war.”
Looks like all the rats except the Neocons and the Dead White Men is leaving the Republican ship for the Democratic one and Obama may succeed in unifying the Corporate party, leaving the Greens on the left, and the Libertarians on the Right. I’m inching ever closer to the idea that the US party system will change into Republicrat/Libertarian over the next election cycles, which is not good news for progressives in any case.