I expect conservative readers of danieldrezner.com to say that
I'm voting for Obama because I want to play nice with my friends and get on TV more. The truth is just a bit different.
Ross Douthat has a point about what it's like to hang around with lots of colleagues of a different ideological ilk -- but the fact is
I'm in a position to suffer no ill effects in my day job from supporting whoever I damn well want to support.
In fact, in making this decision I lost a tempting TV gig for election night on a Network That Shall Not Be Named. In terms of punditry opportunities, I'd be
much better off if I offered my full-throated support for McCain (
not that I'm all that good at it anyway).
As
Julian Sanchez points out, there's not a lot of pundit love for moderate Republicans:
Here’s the really odd thing about this. The number of “David Brooks” slots out there—opportunities for a token moderate conservative or libertarian at an otherwise liberal-leaning mainstream publication—are vanishingly tiny. I’m actually hard pressed to think of an obvious example other than Brooks and maybe Ross Douthat, but at any rate, I’m pretty sure they can be counted on the fingers of one hand. If you’re in the very small pool of realistic contenders for that slot, I guess it might be a rational career strategy. If you’re not, it might still be good for a one-shot “even the conservative…” op-ed or TV spot. But on the whole, it’s not gonna do you that much good. You’re still going to be the freak.
If you’re willing to toe a straight party line, on the other hand, let’s face it, you can be pretty damn mediocre and still carve out a nice little niche for yourself at any one of a welter of generously funded ideological publications and think tanks. Sure, it’s a smaller pond, but you get to be a relatively big fish.
Of course, in his list of moderate Republicans, Sanchez omits the almighty David Gergen, and in doing so misses one whopping incentive to go moderate --
it sets Jessi Klein's heart a-flutter:
The moment I realized my feelings were more serious was in late September, right after the first presidential debate. Gergen was on for hours, and I found myself on the couch, riveted, a glass of Cabernet by my feet, hands wrapped around my knees as I leaned forward to capture every word, every thought, every—oh, be still my fluttering heart, was that a little chuckle?
And then all of a sudden my face felt hot. I was blushing. I was loving David Gergen.
How do I love David Gergen? Let me count the ways....
I love that his name is Gergen. Gerrrrr-gen. I don’t know the real origin of the name, but it’s a quirky, comforting sound with an onomatopoeic quality to it. Like the little pleasure noise you make under your breath when you’re home in your pajamas and you hear someone on the TV making consistent, rational sense.
There's more adoration on
Klein's blog.
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