WHY AMERICANS ARE ABANDONING THE REPUBLICAN PARTY-- AND WHY McCAIN SHOULD ENDORSE OBAMA AND SAVE HIMSELF THE TROUBLE AND EMBARRASSMENT

Today's NY Times claimed that as many as 10% of the participants in the Democratic primaries this year have been Republicans. Republican Party radio propagandists like Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter have been urging Republicans to vote for Hillary since she, at least in their addled minds, will be easier prey for the GOP smear machine. And the smear machine is McCain's only prayer to go above the 40% mark in November and not be the biggest electoral failure since Alf Landon's 36.5% in 1936. Ole Alf carried just two states, Vermont and Maine, neither of which is likely to vote for McCain. In the process, the Republican Party lost massive numbers of reactionary congressman and senators. After Landon dragged down the party so disastrously, there were only 17 Republicans left in the Senate, not enough to prevent the New Deal reforms which made the U.S. the greatest middle class nation in the history of the world, something Bush and the Republicans have managed to chip away at substantially. And that chipping away at the essence of this country as a middle class nation is-- far more than lunatic fringe Republicans like Limbaugh and Coulter-- what is driving Republicans to the Democratic Party. It's certainly what drove Louisianans to vote for Democrat Don Cazayoux tonight in a deep red district (PVI- R +7) that had given Bush 59% in 2004.

Republican voters interviewed here [in Indiana] said that Mr. Limbaugh was not a factor in their decision to vote in the Democratic primary, and that it was the issues that propelled them.

“I disagree with the Democrats on things like abortion and immigration, but I feel that the Republican Party I grew up in is out of touch with the middle-class family,” said Dave Nichols, 40, the owner of a small memorabilia business in Fort Wayne, who has heard of Mr. Limbaugh’s effort and is supporting Mrs. Clinton.

Mr. Nichols said he had no health insurance and lived on a block where three houses were in foreclosure. “McCain doesn’t have an economic plan,” he said “We’re in a recession and need relief now, but he wants to keep spending all that money over there in Iraq when there are so many things we need here at home, from infrastructure to health care."

...“I used to like John McCain, but he’s aligning himself too closely with what Bush did, and that’s just not what I want for this country,” Mrs. Morgan, who is 56, said when asked to explain her rejection of the presumptive Republican nominee.

...Local Republican Party leaders in Indiana concede the attraction of the Democratic candidates to some of their party members. And interviews with roughly a dozen Republican voters in central Indiana suggest that they are driven mainly by concerns about the economy, with discontent over Bush administration policies driving their involvement in the Democratic race.

“Much as I like John McCain as a war hero, I am fearful he does not have the depth of experience to fix the economy,” said Darlene Boatman, 62, a just-retired sales clerk who favors Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. “We’re all struggling here to make ends meet. I haven’t had health care coverage in about 10 years and jobs are fewer and farther between. The economy is my biggest concern, and I think Hillary has the best understanding of how to pull off the recovery we need.”

A report in today's Washington Post about Obamacans, the Republicans that decided to abandon their extremist party for Obama, indicates that the nonstop frontal assault from Hillary, McCain and the corporate media have largely not shaken their intentions to vote for Obama in November.

Interviews this week with more than a dozen registered Republicans and independents who have lined up behind Obama suggest that... most are sticking with the candidate for now. Only two Republicans who voted for Obama in a primary said they might dump him in November for Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), the presumptive GOP nominee. The rest said they're behind the senator from Illinois, though some wondered how many more controversies their recent conversions could take.

Meanwhile Rush Limbaugh only knows one tune; listen as he articulates the Republican vision for a post-middle class America:




UPDATE: HOWARD DEAN DISCUSSED GOP DEFECTIONS ON FOX NEWS TODAY

Dean was on Fox with Chris Wallace today. After denouncing Fox's grotesquely biased coverage, he mentioned that Democrats "stayed off Fox for a long time because your news department is, in fact, biased. And we need to communicate with people who are going to vote in the Democratic Party. Hundreds of thousands of Republicans have turned their back on their own party to vote in the Democratic primaries in the last six months. We owe it to our-- to all the American people to reach out to those folks."