Christopher Buckley, snob

He's voting for Obama. Hates Sarah Palin. Yet thinks John McCain's "instincts remain fundamentally conservative."

Long story short: Buckley's a snob, and Obama has successfully courted the snob vote.

It's fundamentally irrational. Buckley says he'll be voting Democrat for the first time in his life. And why? Because of Obama's personality.

You'll often hear this from independent voters: "I vote for the man, not the party." But the presidency doesn't work that way. When you vote for the man, you get the party, whether you like it or not. That's what Bill Clinton taught me. In 1992, I thought I was voting for a conservative "Sam Nunn Democrat," and instead I got the Dukakis administration. Clinton permanently destroyed my allegiance to the Democratic Party.

Buckley cannot distinguish between what Obama seems and what Obama is, namely a front man for DFA, DailyKos, MoveOn.org and George Soros. If Obama becomes president, he will owe his elevation to the most radical and most corrupt elements of the Democratic Party, who will control his administration. Even if Obama were not himself a radical -- and he's the most radical member of the Senate -- his allies would force his administration in a radical direction.

Buckley (a former GOP speechwriter) is another example of what's wrong with Professional Republicans. Once they're off the payroll, they often seek employment as Professional Ex-Republicans. John Dean, Kevin Phillips, David Gergen, Arianna Huffington, David Brock -- there's a long roster of these opportunistic types who flocked to the GOP out of careerist motives and then, once they saw better prospects on the other side of the aisle, had a lucrative "epiphany."