The interesting thing about all these “conservative” ex-polticians and pundits either trashing Sarah Palin or endorsing Barack Obama, is, again, the timing. The McCain-Obama match-up is now nearly eight months old. Sarah Palin has been VP nominee for two months. But the sudden endorsements (by Powell, a few pundits, and a few retired officials) did not come in early September, when, before the meltdown, McCain/Palin were polling ahead, but in the l1th hour of the campaign when Obama surged on public anger over Wall Street and the resulting blame given the incumbent administration.
Had in early July, or even early September, we seen a Powell or others endorse Obama when he was either dead-even or trailing, the endorsements would have seemed much more principled, based on the facts that by then there had already been sufficient time to observe the candidates and less odds of betting on a winner.
In addition, few apostates have made the argument that Obama’s plan for a steep rise in taxes on the 5% who pay 60% of the existing burden, coupled with a plan to excuse 50% of the wage earners from any federal income tax, coupled again with both a transference credit to them and a trillion-dollar expansion in government, are all the proper antitdotes, at a time of looming recession, for both Wall Street greed and the Democratic contrivance with Freddie and Frannie that proved the catalyst for the meltdown.