Sen. Barack Obama is THE leading 2008 presidential candidate, per a late May 2007 Zogby poll.

Reported the Angus-Reid Global Monitor:

"At least 46 per cent of respondents would support the Illinois senator in head-to-head contests against four prospective Republican nominees.

"Obama holds a three-point edge over Arizona senator John McCain, a six-point lead over former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, and a 17-point advantage over both former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney and actor and former Tennessee senator Fred Thompson.

"In other contests, both New York senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and former North Carolina senator John Edwards lead Romney and Thompson, but trail Giuliani and McCain."

The reason for Sen. Obama's dominance against potential Republican 2008 contenders for the White House? Republicans themselves.

Republicans for Obama
Seems that the senator from Illinois is rapidly developing a following among Republicans disenchanted with their own party's candidates.

In fact, one of the fastest growing campaign websites is Republicans for Obama, which presently counts chapters in 11 states, including Ohio, Texas, Pennsylvania and Colorado.

And now comes word that Republican Colin Powell may join the Obama for President groundswell.

The retired 4-star Army General and beleaguered Secretary of State under George W. Bush revealed that he's quietly been providing Sen. Obama with advice on foreign affairs. When asked yesterday on NBC's Meet the Press if he will support the Republican candidate in 2008, Powell cagily replied:

"I’m going to support the best person that I can find who will lead this country for the eight years beginning in January 2009."

Reagan Democrats, Obama Republicans
Martin Linsky, lecturer at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and former Republican legislator, recently gave his views to the New York Post on Obama's appeal:

"Obama has the potential to appeal to Republican voters the way Reagan appealed to Democrats, and that the emergence of a group like Republicans for Obama... should be taken 'as a real signal, and not aberrational.'

"He offers his own anecdotal evidence: 'Last week, I asked three Republican friends of mine, 'If you had to send a check to someone right now, who would it be?' And they all said: 'Obama.' So. That's interesting.' "

The London Times reported last month that a number of Bush supporters in 2004 have defected to the Obama camp for 2008.

"Tom Bernstein went to Yale University with Bush and co-owned the Texas Rangers baseball team with him. In 2004 he donated the maximum $2,000 to the president’s reelection campaign and gave $50,000 to the Republican National Committee.

"This year he is switching his support to Obama. He is one of many former Bush admirers who find the Democrat newcomer appealing."

And on June 6, 2007, Newsweek's political blog reported:

"Mark McKinnon, a senior media adviser to McCain--who led George W. Bush's ad efforts in 2000 and 2004, and remains one of the sitting president's closest friends--has told the McCain campaign that he would quit if Obama wins the Democratic nomination. "

Fresh Thinking, Civility, Bipartisanship
None of this surprises me. I see it in my own family. My daughter and her husband, both independent-thinking moderate Republicans, admire Obama above all other 2008 candidates.

Last December, one of their friends spied the senator, sitting alone, lunching in a sub sandwich shop in Honolulu. They gingerly approached him, and said he was quite nice, a low-key "normal" guy.

In particular, that's what generations X and Y want: normal, accessible, common sense. All without the baby-boomer-style animosity and regality of the Clinton and Bush 2 administrations.

They, and many of their friends in the 25-to-35-year-old age bracket, are attracted to Obama's fresh thinking, and his cool civility and unwillingness to indulge in attack-dog political warfare as usual.

The GOP hasn't (yet?) offered such a candidate for 2008, and cigar-chomping, slow-drawling actor Fred Thompson certainly won't fit the "fresh" profile.

Commented 29-year-old Republican John Martin, a Navy reservist, to the New York Post:

"I see Obama as representing a different kind of politician...

"I think a lot of us are just really wary of the Republican Party and are looking for something new. His message of bipartisanship, of appealing to more than just 51 percent of the voting population, is, I think, what we need."

Don't Snicker, Democrats
Obama Republicans? Don't snicker, Democrats, and don't besmirch Sen. Obama's heartfelt drive for bipartisanship while retaining basic progressive values.

It just may be the winning formula for putting a Democrat back in charge of the White House.

Related Reading
Barack Obama's Gutsy Speech on Immigration Reform
Angus-Reid Global Monitor, May 29, 2007: Obama Leads Four Republicans in U.S. Race
New York Post, June 7, 2007: Turning their Barack on GOP
The London Times, May 6, 2007: Republicans defect to the Obama camp
Sen. Barack Obama in 2008 Info Center Hub