Obama Campaign Attracting Disenchanted Republican 'Obamacans'

WASHINGTON — Ronald Reagan had his "Reagan Democrats," but Barack Obama has turned the tables on the Republican Party with his "Obamacans," disaffected Republicans who are flocking to the Democratic presidential front-runner this year the way disenchanted Democrats backed Reagan, though in smaller numbers.

And in the upcoming Texas Democratic presidential primary, which is open to Republicans, "Obamacans" could be out in force. An "Obamacan" Website, www. republicansforobama.org, already has a petition drive under way to line up Republicans for Obama in Texas.

Indeed, ex-Marine Jack Holt, a successful technology businessman from Austin who has supported George W. Bush and John McCain in the past with his votes and financial donations, is so taken with Obama that he's close to taking the final step, from lifelong Republican, albeit an "Obamacan," to Democrat.

"You could say I'm just about there," the 44-year-old Holt said in a telephone interview Friday as he organized a weekend three-mile run/walk fundraising event in Austin for Obama. "For me, the Republican Party has become so ugly and so arrogant I don't want to have any part of it." Obama, on the other hand, "has broad appeal" and is "a candidate who articulates what everyone wants for our country," he added.

Throughout the Democratic presidential contest. Obama has drawn Republicans into the party's primaries and caucuses in small but significant numbers, from 3 percent of the total vote in the Iowa caucus Jan. 3 to a high of 9 percent last week in Wisconsin. And in virtually every case, Obama has won an overwhelming majority of Republicans voting in the Democratic contest. In Wisconsin, for example, of the 9 percent of Republicans who voted in the Democratic primary, Obama got 72 percent, compared to 28 percent for New York Sen. Hillary Clinton.

Statistical data on the phenomenon is still scarce, and it may not be on par - yet - with Reagan's success almost 30 years in attracting working and middle class voters disappointed by Jimmy Carter's presidency, so-called "Reagan Democrats." They have been an important part of the GOP political coalition in every presidential campaign since 1980.

However, pollster John Zogby cautions anyone against doubting the reality of an "Obamacan" phenomenon in the 2008 presidential campaign.

"There really is such a thing as an Obama Republican," Zogby said in an interview Friday. "This group tends to be political moderate, tired of bickering, and even more tired of President Bush and Vice President Cheney. It is part of the unique appeal that Obama has among centrist voters, independent thinkers, and those concerned with America's image overseas."

Since winning the Iowa caucus on Jan. 3, Obama has joked at nearly every rally about the presence of "Obamacans" at his campaign events. "They whisper to me. They say, 'Barack, I'm a Republican, but I support you.' And I say, 'Thank you. Why are we whispering?'" he says. It is a sure-fire laugh line.

But some of the Republican support Obama has received has, in fact, been offered quietly. Tom Bernstein, a Yale classmate and Texas Ranger co-owner with President Bush and one of the president's Pioneer political fundraisers, is among Obama's donors this year, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a watchdog group in Washington. Bersnstein has not commented publicly on his support for Obama.

Not all "Obamacans" are quiet about their support for the charismatic young senator from Illinois, however.

Susan Eisenhower, the granddaughter of former President Dwight Eisenhower, in a column for The Washington Post earlier this month, wrote that if the Democrats nominate Obama, "this lifelong Republican will work to get him elected."

"I am convinced that Barack Obama is the one presidential candidate today who can encourage ordinary Americans to stand straight again; he is a man who can salve our national wounds and both inspire and pursue genuine bipartisan cooperation. Just as important, Obama can assure the world and Americans that this great nation's impulses are still free, open, fair and broad-minded," she wrote.

Similarly, former Sen. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, the only Republican senator to vote against the Iraq war in 2002, recently declared that Obama "is the best candidate to restore American credibility" abroad. He chose to make his declaration on the same day that Arizona Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, visited Rhode Island to campaign for the GOP nomination.

Mark McKinnon, a top adviser to McCain, a position he also held in George W. Bush's campaign, is similarly smitten with Obama. He has, in fact, reiterated his earlier pledge that he will step down from McCain's campaign if Obama is the Democratic nominee. "I would simply be uncomfortable being in a campaign that would be inevitably attacking Barack Obama," McKinnon recently told ABC News. "I think it would be uncomfortable or me, and I think it would be bad for the McCain campaign."