By: Jim Meyers
Businessman Donald Trump has endorsed John McCain for president — and says his opponent, Barack Obama, should have chosen Hillary Clinton as his running mate.
“I know John McCain, and John McCain's a great guy, a tremendous guy,” Trump said on CNN’s “Larry King Live” Wednesday night.
“I've known him for a long time. And I'm with him, and I'm with him based on the fact that I have great knowledge of John McCain. Also, this is not the right time for tax increases. And Obama wants to increase your taxes drastically.”
Trump made a donation to Clinton's campaign during the primaries, and also contributed to McCain’s effort in May, Politico reports.
“I don't understand why Hillary wasn't chosen,” Trump told King. “She was really winning. I have a friend that came to this country and was here for the last four weeks of that whole election. He said: ‘How did she lose? She won every primary?’ He didn't understand it.
“The fact is that Obama went limping across the finish line. He should have chosen Hillary. It would have been a much different race, I believe. Right now, it looks to me like McCain is probably winning.”
Trump also said he thinks McCain is “going to be a great president,” and added that he’s “very pessimistic” about the current financial situation.
Though she said she might otherwise be “lunching,” Lynn Forester de Rothschild, the American-born baroness spent part of her afternoon defecting – from her political party’s presidential candidate – in full view of the press and a spray of television cameras.
Ms. de Rothschild, a personal friend and prominent backer of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and a member of the committee that helped draft the Democratic Party’s platform, announced on Wednesday that while she intended to keep her party affiliation, she would not be voting for Senator Barack Obama.
“It is the last place in the world I thought I would be in October 2008,” Ms. de Rothshchild, the New Jersey-born businesswoman who married into the British banking family, said at a press conference in Washington, D.C. organized by the McCain campaign.
“We have got to make the right choice about who goes to the White House,” she continued. “So this decision to vote Republican for the first time in my life has been after a lot of thought. I have looked at all four candidates very carefully and I have no question about what I am doing today.”
For months, Ms. De Rothschild been signaling her displeasure with Mr. Obama. In June, she told The New York Times that she could not “fall in line,” behind the Democratic nominee.
And on Wednesday, flanked by four American flags and wearing a McCain pin, she took herself out of line and positioned herself firmly in the G.O.P.’s corner.
“I believe that Barack Obama with MoveOn.org, and Nancy Pelosi and Howard Dean have taken the Democratic Party too far to the left,” she said. “I’m not comfortable there.”
Had she talked her decision over with Mrs. Clinton who urged her supporters to stand with Mr. Obama?
“No, no,” said Ms. de Rothschild, smiling and shaking her head. “Not since the convention.”
“I’m sure she is not pleased with what I’m doing today,” she conceded. “But you know what, I have to do what I believe in.”
And though she acknowledged that she and Mr. McCain’s running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin “disagree on some issues,” Ms. De Rothschild declared: “I love Sarah Palin,” adding, “I think she’s pretty cool.”
Ms. de Rothschild, who is the director and C.E.O. of E.L. Rothschild Limited, a British investment firm, spent much of her career as a telecommunications entrepreneur. She served for two years on President Bill Clinton’s advisory council on the country’s information infrastructure during the early 1990’s.
On Wednesday Ms. de Rothschild said she had already informed her family and business colleagues that she intended to spend the rest of the election season actively campaigning for the Republican ticket.
And although she stopped short of quitting her party entirely, Ms. de Rothschild, who ended the press conference by quoting a G.O.P. icon, seemed at least partially converted.
“Right now I feel a little bit like Ronald Reagan who said, ‘I didn’t leave the Democratic Party, the Democratic Party left me.
1 comment:
well written article. it is nice to know that Lady Rothschild is so brave and thoughtful. I heard her speak last night with Gretta and learned from you article and Wikipedia just how important and powerful she is. I hope more Americans will work hard like her to make this country grow strong and happy. Is it possible to have a TV show where common Americans can share their experiences and express why they want McCain and Palin to be our leaders?
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