A colleague of Glen Beck, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hanity on the air, conservative talk radio host Michael Smerconish has now endorsed Barack Obama for president. He’s the latest in a flood of conservatives to jump on the Obama bandwagon, most noteably Colin Powell yesterday.

Sure a Michael Smerconish endorsement probably doesn’t carry the same weight as a Powell nod, but it’s just another shovel full of dirt on McCain’s political casket. So what prompted the unlikely switch? Let’s start with Bush.

The Bush administration outsourced the hunt for bin Laden and instead invaded Iraq.
No one in Iraq caused the death of 3,000 Americans on 9/11. Our invasion was based on a false predicate, so we have no business being there, regardless of whether the surge is working. Our focus must be the tribal-ruled FATA region in Pakistan. Only recently has our military engaged al-Qaeda there in operations that mirror those Obama was ridiculed for recommending in August 2007.

Last spring, Obama told me: "It's not that I was opposed to war [in Iraq]. It's that I felt we had a war that we had not finished." Even Sen. Joe Lieberman conceded to me last Friday that "the headquarters of our opposition, our enemies today" is the FATA.

Now how about McCain’s handling of the economy?

Jack Bogle, the legendary founder of the Vanguard Group, told me recently that McCain's assertion that the fundamentals of the economy were "strong" was the "stupidest statement of 2008." In light of the unprecedented volatility in the market, who can dispute Bogle's characterization and the lack of understanding that McCain's assessment portends?

And lest we forget, Ms. Congeniality herself, Sarah Palin.

We are left questioning the judgment of a candidate who bypassed his reported preferred choices, Lieberman and former Gov. Tom Ridge, and instead yielded to the whims of the periphery of his party. With two wars and a crumbling economy, Palin is too big of a risk to be a heartbeat away from a presidency held by a 72-year-old man who has battled melanoma. Advantage Joe Biden.

Sounds like all the typical talking points of a conservative forced to jump ship from his party because of the absurdity of not only their campaign, but the last eight years as well.

Who do you think will be the next high-profile Republican to endorse Obama?