“Instead of offering a national vision for our nation, Senator McCain has resorted to smear tactics in an effort to scare voters and stir up the right-wing base,” said Republican former Minnesota Governor Arne Carlson on October 23, in a surprise endorsement issued at the State Capitol. “Senator Obama has been a remarkably disciplined and focused leader who will become a truly great president. There is no doubt that Senator Barack Obama is the right choice for president in these challenging times.”
Carlson was a Republican politician and office-holder in Minnesota for more than 40 years, beginning in the Minneapolis City Council in 1965 and ending as governor from 1991-1999.
In a wide-ranging telephone interview, Carlson said the question of when he decided to endorse Obama had two parts: when he decided and when he decided to go public. He decided to endorse Obama during the Republican National Convention, Carlson said, because it was clear that John McCain’s choice of Alaskan governor Sarah Palin as his vice-presidential running mate was made to “excite the base” and without regard for “the well-being of the nation.”
Obama “identified a national goal and stuck to it very well,” said Carlson, referring to the Obama themes of hope and unity. “The unity message is very compelling because the United States is a very divided nation, not just on the issue of race but on a multitude of things. … I think Obama has developed a groundswell of support for a national purpose.” He compared Obama’s leadership style to that of presidents Franklin Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy and Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Carlson decided to go public when he saw Sixth District Republican Representative Michelle Bachmann on MSNBC’s Hardball program. He said her comments about anti-Americanism made Minnesota seem “no longer the land of sky blue waters and ten thousand lakes. Now we’re the land of strange sentiments.” Carlson recalled his days as a college newspaper editor who “wrote very strong editorials” against Joe McCarthy and was himself called a communist sympathizer because of those editorials.
Asked whether he had heard from fellow Republicans about his endorsement of a Democrat, Carlson said he had not, adding, “The Republicans I know are all voting for Obama anyway.”
Further excerpts from the interview:
On politics dictating policy
This whole idea- it’s a very dangerous idea and not one the media should take lightly — when governors and presidents elevate politics into the inner circle.
Bush -there’s no point where Karl Rove didn’t enter into the picture.
Bill Clinton — integrated politics into the overall [picture] … He was a policy wonk but loved politics and constantly interwove both [politics and policy]. …
But can you imagine Truman or Eisenhower sitting there with political people telling them what will sell and what won’t sell? This country’s gone way too far into the politics and not into the substance. If we want to make it through, we’ve got to focus on the substance. …
I didn’t see any of it coming out of McCain. It’s like Alice in Wonderland – if you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.
On the economy and the deficit
People don’t realize the enormity of the damage that has been done by this Bush administration. They aren’t conservative, they’re not even neo-con, they are radical. …
They have doubled the deficit in five years. You have a vice president who publicly stated that deficits don’t matter. I don’t know what economics course he took. …
George Bush did not impose this catastrophe all by himself. Republicans controlled Congress for six of the past eight years. A president cannot pass legislation all by himself, cannot pass a budget all by himself, cannot have declining revenues all by himself. It was the Republican party under the guise of neo-conservatives that said deficits don’t matter, we don’t have to worry about balanced budgets. …
When Bill Clinton left office, we had three years of balanced budget and a surplus. The agreement between Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich was one of the most significant agreements of the century. Had that been kept, we would have been out of debt in twelve years.
Using the accrual system of accounting, our deficit is over 53 trillion dollars. That comes out to $450,000 per family. Half of that, $225,000 of that debt, was inflicted on us by the Bush administration itself. I’m dying to hear somebody tell me that that is conservative.
On the war in Iraq and the Bush doctrine
And then the Bush doctrine basically says that if we think another nation poses a threat to us we have the right to invade. Where in the world did we get that one? Can you imagine what President Eisenhower would have said to that? …
Our national interests were not involved in that war. We know now how truth was bent quite significantly. But we also know that we never engaged in a proper debate and I blame both parties for that. When we go to war and ask young people to die, you don’t do so unless there is a compelling national interest. Not whether Iraq is better off without Hussein or not, but a compelling national interest of America. And when you do go to war, you pay for it. And we did neither.
I may be wrong, but I can’t think of any member of Congress who resigned and said “I’m going to war to fight.” …
I’m very old-fashioned that way. In World War II you couldn’t find people who were not joining. Members of Congress resigned, Harold Stassen resigned as governor of Minnesota to go into the navy. …
On Republicans “fleeing” the Bush administration
Now it’s interesting to see the Republican party run as far away from Bush as they can. … John McCain now trashes Bush on everything. … Party chairmen all over the place, members of Congress all over the place. Senator Coleman can’t even recall the president’s name. All of them have fled, every single one of them. John McCain is publicly fleeing today. … I have never seen such mass flight in my life. …
Balance budgets, pay taxes according to what you spend, and live within your means — [that is] old Republicanism. … Neocon philosophy — borrow, borrow, borrow and spend as if there were no consequences. But the consequences are dreadful. …They are not conservatives. I am a conservative.
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