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Henican: Even Republicans take a liking to Obama

Ellis Henican

February 17, 2008

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So here I am, on a chilly mid-February night, inside the Women's National Republican Club at Fifth Avenue and 51st Street in Manhattan.

The chandeliers are twinkling softly. The curtains go up a million miles. The ladies and gentlemen have gathered for an earnest discussion of national politics.

"I can't help it," said a lady in a pastel blazer nursing a club soda. "I like Barack. And I'm not sure I agree with him about anything."

"He has that special something," nodded her friend, a jovial woman with a sweep of stiff blond hair. "He seems to speak from values. What a shame he's not a Republican."

Ellis Henican Bio | E-mail | Recent columns

If you think there isn't something real about the magnetism of Barack Obama, you should spend an evening in a place where the rules of politics say he should be loathed.

In y'at neighborhood bar in New Orleans. At a get-out-the-vote-for-Hillary event. Even here, at this gathering of Republican women from Jersey, Westchester and the Upper East Side.

Obama says "change," whatever on earth that might mean. They're all nodding along.

"He has something that goes beyond ideology or politics," said David Webb, one of the committeemen who'd organized the evening's discussion, making clear he's still more likely to vote Republican in the fall.

But even those who probably won't vote Obama can understand why others might.

"At this point, it transcends politics," Webb said.

Hillary gets one more chance to stop him, in Texas and Ohio.

After that, it's up to John McCain - who should be the darling of the Women's National Republican Club, where on a chilly night in mid-February, everyone was talking Barack.

READING, WRITING: And murder? Adelphi students say they had no clue that soft-spoken history major Nicholas Dudley Weaver was any kind of threat - until he was plucked from science class on Thursday and held in the fatal 2002 shooting of an aspiring Maryland rapper. Killer grades were the only warning sign.

VROOM, VROOM: How is Casey Exton, the scruffy publisher of "Outlaw Biker," persuading George Clooney to pose for a cover shot? He's reminding the motorcycle-crazed star who's gunned these engines before him: Elizabeth Taylor, Brooke Shields and the late Malcolm Forbes. "They all liked their covers," Exton says. "Forbes even bought 100 copies - retail."

ELLIS' BOOK CLUB: This was going to be Jimmy Breslin's "Mafia cop" book. But instead of focusing on Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa, JB-one-and-only grew fascinated by "The Good Rat." Burton Kaplan is a 70-something garmento from Bensonhurst who, before he flipped, became a crucial murder-for-hire middleman. According to Jimmy, the rat spoke "in simple declarative sentences, subject, verb and object, one following the other to start a rhythm that is compelling to the jury's ear." Kind of like a Breslin column, no?

ASKED AND UNANSWERED: That guy who hacked a shrink to death with a meat cleaver, can we all agree he definitely needed a shrink? ... What's Clemens' crime? Pettitte larceny? Or grand theft truth? ... The price of a first-class stamp is going up? Gosh, why didn't they ever try that before? ... It's not a great nickname, but he's stuck with it, right, "Scooter-the-face-biting-dog"? ... In the 22 years since Hurricane Gloria, how many billions in homeowner premiums has State Farm pulled out of Long Island? So why the sudden policy-termination binge? ... Rear-ending a police cruiser, sliding into a construction pit: Are Long Island vehicle crashes getting weirder - or does it just seem that way? ... What exactly was it in the performance of the bankrupt New York Racing Association that convinced Spitzer, Silver and Bruno: "Now here's an organization that deserves a new 25-year contract?" ... Is WLIE/540 (formerly WBIC, WLIX and WLUX) about to go all-Russian? Insiders at the New York Radio Message Board think so. Personally, I miss the local-LI talk days ... Eighty-two deaths already: How much more proof do you need, kids? These "choking games" are deadly serious ... I still don't get it: To be extorted in a swinger-sex video scam, didn't the victims have to WANT TO cuddle up with Michael Largue and Shawn Payne? You've seen the photos of these two, right? ... "Bishops Urge Actors to Shun Sex Scenes": How long 'til Hollywood folds? How long is eternity? ... All the baby-kidnap talk and the "Code Pink" drill at North Shore University Hospital - is this making J. Lo's twins any safer or putting them at even greater risk?

BARACK'S REAL APPEAL

1. A better sillouette then Hillary

2. Less saggy than McCain

3. Less Old Testament than Huckabee

4. Tamer hair than Romney

5. Fewer wives than Giuliani