Blog @ MoreWhat.com

Former Republican congressman endorses Obama’s bid

From two sources, the AP and Wikipedia, Obama received an endorsement from former Rep Jim Leach (R) of the Iowa 2nd which the two sources differ on their adjectives describing him. The AP describes Leach as a moderate while Wikipedia opts for liberal. Wiki further describes Leach as conservative on fiscal matters, moderate on social issues and progressive (aka: liberal) on foreign policy. He was in Congress for 15 terms from 1977 thru 2007. He represented a mostly Democratic district in Iowa and was re-elected easily.

If you read the bio at Wiki it appears while he is described as conservative in fiscal matters that funding all manner of causes was a habit. And if he is liberal on foreign policy than it would make sense that he endorse Obama. Endorsements in general should be of limited value to a candidate. There is a downside when questionable people endorse a candidate. There may be a minor upside when endorsed by newspapers. And there may be a significant upside when prominent citizens endorse a candidate. But that could easily mean the endorser was predisposed to the party and politics of the candidate in the first place and the endorsement may only prove useful to those not considering deeper implications or typical campaign tactics designed to influence voting.

Aannouncements of endorsements noticed by this blog are typically responded to with ‘who cares’? This endorsement announcement would be no exception. Obama’s so-called world tour was among other things a photo op to make him look Presidential as if he has foreign policy experience. Imagine that. Mysteriously he receives an endorsement from a FORMER Congressman with an arguably liberal stance on foreign policy who was officially a Republican. Perhaps not a RINO, but former Rep Jim Leach’s endorsement does more to solidify the notion that Obama is weak and liberal on foreign policy. Another reason to vote for John McCain. Like we needed one.

Stanford Matthews
MoreWhat.com

Former Republican congressman endorses Obama’s bid

By MIKE GLOVER

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) A leading Republican moderate with a foreign policy background endorsed presidential candidate Barack Obama on Tuesday as the Democrat sought to show his appeal to members of both political parties.

(from Wikipedia)
Leach served 30 years as a liberal Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from 1977 to 2007, representing Iowa’s 2nd congressional district (numbered as the 1st District from 1977 to 2003). In Congress he chaired the Banking and Financial Services Committee, the Subcommittee on Asian and Pacific Affairs, and the Congressional-Executive Commission on China.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 14th, 2008 at 6:43 pm and is filed under Public Affairs, wordpress, Politics, campaign, election, GOP, Democrats, conservative, liberal, obama, Foreign Affairs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.