Today’s news is that Colin Powell has endorsed Barack Obama. Rather than being an unusual event, Powell’s endorsement of Obama is simply the continuation of a trend:  Conservatives endorsing Barack Obama.

George Will wrote; “Under the pressure of the financial crisis, one presidential candidate is behaving like a flustered rookie playing in a league too high. It is not Barack Obama.”

So, now even the biggest advocates of deregulation and conservatism are looking at John McCain and wondering if he has what it takes to be President. Readers will note that I have never had any such concerns about Mr. McCain’s lack of what it takes to be President.

Conservative icon Christopher Buckley, son of William F. Buckley, has come out as a conservative for Obama. Mr. Buckley shortly thereafter had his resignation accepted by the National Review, the conservative publication he partly owns which his father had started.

Mr. McCain recently shot himself in his foot by saying as President he “would fire the head of the SEC” because of the recent financial crisis. The president does not have any such authority.

Mr. McCain said SEC Chairman Chris Cox had “betrayed the public’s trust.” Later, McCain said Cox was a “good man but, needs to resign or be fired” and the fed needs to “stop bailouts and get back to work managing money supply and inflation.”

Mr. Will noted that even the Wall Street Journal, now under the control of uber-liberal Rupert Murdoch, scolded Mr. McCain as “un-Presidential” and “deeply unfair” in calling for Cox’s head. Most tellingly, the WSJ said “McCain doesn’t understand what’s happening on Wall Street any better than Barack Obama.”  The Journal went on to decry Mr. McCain’s ignorance of the stock market, ignorance of Cox’s record, duties and powers as SEC Chairman., and finished; “In a crisis, voters want steady, calm leadership, not easy misleading answers that will do nothing to help. Mr. McCain is sounding like a person searching for a political foil rather than a real solution. He’ll never beat Mr. Obama by running as an angry populist like Al Gore, circa 2000.”

Mr. Will takes a slightly different tack and ends on an even more ominous note and notes a McCain camp chief economic advisor is an old adversary of Chris Cox, and that McCain’s “firing” tirade is more retaliation against an old political adversary than any substantive related charge.

Mr. Will goes so far as to accuse McCain of a “Queen of Hearts” mindset where every adversary gets an impulsive “Off with his head!” smear which bodes ill for a McCain Presidency because no one could be assured that McCain’s decisions would be “by calm reflection and clear principles, [McCain] having neither patience nor aptitude for either.”

Other conservatives have previously noted McCain’s temperament and found it to be “unPresidential” (here) but, now George Will and the Wall Street Journal are foremost among such.

Mr. McCain’s running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin, has also run into concerns with conservatives. Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE) is the ranking GOP member of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee and had this to say about Gov. Palin.  “She doesn’t have any foreign policy credentials,” Hagel said. “You get a passport for the first time in your life last year? I mean, I don’t know what you can say. You can’t say anything.” The McCain campaign has said that since Alaska is close to Russia that is evidence of Gov. Palin’s international experience. Sen. Hagel scoffed at that notion.

“I think they ought to just be honest about it and stop the nonsense about, ‘I look out my window and I see Russia and so therefore I know something about Russia,’” he said. “That kind of thing is insulting to the American people.”

Apparently not, as the McCain campaign continues to spew about Alaska’s nearness to other countries as proof of Gov. Palin’s international experience. But, Governor Palin has never been to the part of Alaska closest to Russia. In, fact no Alaska governor has.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgCS8OYqu2s[/youtube]

In a newer development, Gov. Palin spent two days in New York meeting some hand-picked foreign leaders to tone down criticism she had never met any foreign leaders.

The GOP Vice-Presidential nominee, according to a Palin staff press release, also met “Dr. Henry Kessenger [sic]” while in New York. Let’s note that Dr. Kissinger is still responsible for the deaths of over 500,000 in Cambodia for his and former President Nixon’s illegal bombing of that country.

Mr. McCain recently held his first press conference in six weeks.

There has never been a Palin press conference. The Daily Show recently remarked that “Joe the Plumber has had more press conferences than Governor Palin.”

Even Fox News has criticized the McCain Campaign for its lack of access by the press in favor of staged rallies.

And even more conservatives are jumping off the Palin ship daily, calling for her to get off the ticket.

When conservatives and their highest public devotees have had an opportunity to experience the reality of what a McCain-Palin administration would be like, conservatives shudder too, and support Obama.