Posted on 10/27/2008 3:52:28 AM PDT by WilliamReading
Former Sen. Larry Pressler (R-S.D.), who was the first Vietnam veteran to serve in the United States Senate, is the latest Republican to back Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign, Politico learned Sunday.
Pressler, who said that in addition to casting an absentee ballot for Obama he'd donated $500 to the Illinois senator's campaign, cited the Democrat's response to the financial crisis as the primary reason for his decision.
"I just got the feeling that Obama will be able to handle this financial crisis better, and I like his financial team of [former Treasury Secretary Robert] Rubin and [former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul] Volcker better," he said. By contrast, John McCain's "handling of the financial crisis made me feel nervous."
Pressler, who said that he had never voted for a Democrat for president before, added, "I feel really badly. I just hate to go against someone I served with in the Senate. I voted and I got it mailed and I dropped it in the mailbox, and it tore at me to do that."
Currently an adjunct professor at Baruch College in New York, Pressler served in the Senate from 1979 through 1997, and prior to that spent two terms in the House of Representatives.
Like some of Obama's other Republican supporters, Pressler said he had concerns about his party's fiscal policy, particularly the war in Iraq, that went beyond the presidential campaign.
"We have to be a moderate party. We can't be for all these foreign military adventures. We have to stop spending so much money. My God, the deficit is so high!" he said. "The Republican Party I knew in the 1970s is just all gone."
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
This is a surprise.
Ethanol.
who?
I mean, I know that's true, because otherwise - the MSM would tell me. Wouldn't they? I mean, if this is big news, that would be big news, too. Right?
What an idiot.
WHy does he have to say anything? If it tore him up inside just keep it inside. GeeZ. Everyone has to have their 15 minutes I guess. (again)
But to send $500 to a Marxist like Obama? I always did like Pressler though . . how did he lose his Senate seat?
This is a guy who couldn’t get re-elected to the US Senate from one of the most Conservative Republican states in the union, so what does that tell you about this guy?
“Former” senator - how many other vets are pulling for McCain - look at the military polls - he’s ahead by 3:1
Ooooooh! He “gets the feeling”!
Just like Prissy Chrissy.
good riddance, dinosaur!
Larry Pressler wants to get back to Washington DC, so he’s making a big deal out of this; he’s probably tired of being a professor.
the 70’s? who cares about nixon and ford? we want reagan. 80’s man.
“The Republican Party I knew in the 1970s is just all gone.”
Ah, yes. The NY Republican party that gave us Mayor John V. Lindsey, the worm that started New York on a downward spiral that wasn’t halted until Rudy Giuliani smacked down the Left and pulled the city up by its bootstraps.
If this guy is a true Republican, so is Nurse Bloomberg.
Well there we go... if you are not strong willed and do not have firm principles, you will be easily influenced by your environment.
yeah, no rational thought. No substance. Totally vacuous, like peggy noonan.
Probably wants to stay in the good graces of his fellow professors...
That's my guess too. McCain is against ethanol, and that is causing him a lot of trouble with the socialist corn farmers in the upper midwest (Iowa primarily).
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