Posted on 10/17/2008 11:08:54 AM PDT by XR7
Christopher Buckley ’75, co-founder of the Yale Daily News magazine and son of conservative icon William F. Buckley Jr. ’50, resigned Saturday from his position as a columnist at National Review, the influential magazine his father founded five years after graduating from Yale.
The younger Buckley offered up his post to National Review editor Rich Lowry after Buckley’s Thursday endorsement of Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama in an online news magazine elicited a wave of outrage from National Review readers.
“By Friday, I was Judas,” said Buckley in a telephone interview with the News on Tuesday night. “I thought the decent thing to do under the circumstances was to offer to resign, and they rather quickly took me up on my offer.”
Buckley’s endorsement — titled “Sorry, Dad, I’m Voting for Obama” — appeared Thursday on TheDailyBeast.com. In the piece, Buckley described his disapproval of the McCain campaign and the reasons for his surprising switch to Obama.
“Obama has in him … the potential to be a good, perhaps even great leader,” Buckley wrote in the endorsement. “He is, it seems clear enough, what the historical moment seems to be calling for.”
National Review readers reacted immediately. In a Tuesday afternoon posting on The Daily Beast, Buckley described the flood of negative mail to National Review as a “700-1” landslide against his views.
“They got an avalanche of pissed-off mail,” Buckley said on the phone. “People saying, ‘He’s Judas, a Benedict Arnold, an asshole.’ ”
In a post on National Review’s Web site Tuesday afternoon, editor Rich Lowry denied Buckley’s claim that his column had sparked such a massive reaction.
“We have gotten about 100 e-mails, if that (a tiny amount compared to our usual volume), and threats of cancellations are in the single digits,” Lowry wrote.
Although his father would have adamantly opposed the endorsement, Buckley said, the elder Buckley would have responded rationally, rather than emotionally.
“He would let you say anything you had to say as long as it amounted to an argument,” said Buckley. “Then he would go after you and eviscerate you.”
But the elder Buckley may not have been opposed to an Obama presidency in the first place. In 1970, Buckley wrote an article for LOOK magazine entitled “Why We Need a Black President in 1980.” In it, he argued that a young black man, possibly rising from the ranks of politically active blacks in communities across America, could rise to prominence and challenge America’s “hypocrisy.”
The election of a black man, William Buckley wrote then, would be a “celebration of the ideals of a country which by this act alone would reassert its idealism.”
“It was a reminder of how unpredictable he was,” said his son. “That was one of the things that made WFB so damn interesting. He took unpredictable points of view.”
Buckley’s defection comes as an increasing number of moderate conservative pundits come out against the McCain-Palin ticket. Only three weeks ago, National Review columnist Kathleen Parker sparked a storm of controversy by calling for Republican vice-presidential candidate Gov. Sarah Palin’s resignation. But the columns’ impacts may ultimately be washed out in the flood of media coverage surrounding trouble on Wall Street, which many pundits say has boosted Obama’s prospects.
“The financial crisis has been almost definitive,” said diplomat-in-residence Charles Hill, a former foreign policy advisor to Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s presidential campaign. “I think Obama is out in front and almost certainly will stay there.”
Buckley cited the nomination of Palin as another turning point in the McCain candidacy.“I initially swooned over Sarah Palin,” he said. “And then she started talking.”
Buckley has written the back-page column for the National Review since June of this year and will be sad to bid farewell to the magazine, he said.
“I love the National Review. It’s the magazine my dad created and I will always be fond of it,” Buckley said.
Yet he does not feel regret, he said. “I’m pretty confident I did not betray my father’s ghost,” he said. “I will sleep soundly tonight.”
Is this the same Christopher Buckley whose mistress is suing him for child support for the child he sired in an adulterous affair? Is this the same Christopher Buckley who has publicly bragged about getting stoned in his father’s house?
Buckley thinks that because of the books he “wrote”, Obama is a great intellect.
Like himself.
bwaahahaha
I don't know if its fair to call Chris a Benedict Arnold, or Judas.
The '*sshole' epithet might be fitting enough, but what is beyond dispute is he's a man in desperate need of some critical thinking skills.
That is, if he really believes what he said & isn't just saying it to boost his profile.
Right on. All taxes are paid by consumers as embedded or sales. Most of all business and corporation add all tax on the products or services. There is no other way to do business. That is why most most rich pay no taxes. Oh, they fill out income tax forms, but ALL taxes are embedded in the product or service.
It would be unfair to Benedict Arnold, who was at least an accomplished general before he went turncoat.
Ronald Prescott Reagan never was a Ronald Wilson Reagan, Jr.
Your point, Peggy? Benjamin Franklin's son spent time in jail for being a loyalist counterrevolutionary, and father and son never spoke again.
WFB would never support a socialist...particularly one who is actively undermining the Republic. A black conservative president...sure, why not....
He is just bitter because he got his dad’s shoes out and they make him look like he has clown feet.
He stated that Chris was Apolitical and showed no interest at all in politics until his father encouraged him to work for a campaign.
He also stated that Chris has a tendency of hanging out and being chummy with Washington DC insiders and wouldn't be surprised if he showed more loyalty to them than his own party.
I miss Steyn, I miss Flo-King, too - but Steyn was always the first thing I turned to when the new issue showed up.
Nah, that comparison is specious.
Buckley making that comparison insults Judas Iscariot.
Benedict Arnold is a far better comparison.
I agree Matt. If we had weeded our vinyard, we wouldn’t be in this mess this year.
If we had lofted a person like Palin with the experience required, they would have beaten Obama 65/35 this election.
The Republican leadership should take a good look at who is drawing the most attention this year. It sure isn’t McCain, Obama, or Biden.
The public wants desperately to have a leader with Palin’s values.
Get rid of the riff raff. If they are forever joining the Democrats to pass legislation, give them the boot. Let them join the Democrat party for real.
“He is, it seems clear enough, what the historical moment seems to be calling for.”
This kind of attitude usually helps demagogues and dictators rise to power. Good thinking, Chris (not).
Watch the most recent interview....
Maybe he only wears his in the closet?
Hmmmmmmm?
“In a post on National Review’s Web site Tuesday afternoon, editor Rich Lowry denied Buckley’s claim that his column had sparked such a massive reaction.”
National Review is overstocked with Brits, Canadians, boring technicians and dingbat women. They’ll be happy losers and bask in their elitism under Obamachev.
NR needs a serious purge of deadwood that has piled up under the reign of Lowry and Goldberg. An Coulter was right when she called them girlie men and now look at how low NR has fallen.
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