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Sarah Palin Scares Hillary Clinton Supporter Ed Koch

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Ed Koch, the former New York Mayor who has been highly-critical of some Democrats in recent years and was an active supporter of Sen. Hillary Clinton for President, is now endorsing Obama-Biden.

Sarah Palin is a plucky, exciting candidate, but when her record is examined, she fails miserably with respect to her views on the domestic issues that are so important to the people of the U.S., and to me. Frankly, it would scare me if she were to succeed John McCain in the presidency.

What this means: Koch has carved out a love-hate image in the eyes of both many Democrats and Republicans. He has been exceedingly outspoken. But he remains highly-popular among many Jewish-Americans — not only for his specific, sometimes-peppery views but because over the years he has been a highly-popular, headliner speaker who would be brought into synagogues. He speaks to many corporate and private groups around the world.

I covered one of his speeches years ago when I was a reporter for the San Diego Union and Koch addressed a temple in La Jolla, CA. I did a brief interview with him afterward. He had and has a lot of clout with Jewish-Americans — and if he’s on the stump for Obama-Biden (you can see from his statement linked above that he is most enamored with Biden) he will be a highly-effective surrogate for the Democrats.

Another plus: he is highly-quotable — so print and broadcast journalists love him.

  • Silhouette
    Yes, sadly, another avid Clinton supporter is forced to choose the lesser of two evils to support. Seems like we all are in that boat now..

    Too bad we didn't do the right thing and nominate a sure-winner who was competant to do the jobs we need to be done...with one of the most successful Presidents in US History at her side to lend a hand.

    But no, it was more important to make (black, not female) history so we opted for the lesser candidate. If this race was about the issues since day one...like what will determine it in the end....we'd all be popping champagne corks by now...

    Oh well.
  • Leonidas
    I agree with that a Clinton-Obama ticket wouldn't be beatable by the GOP, despite my preference of a McCain-Palin ticket over it. I'm a realist.
  • RememberNovember
    Interesting how you put Obama second on that ticket, Leo. going alphabetical or hierarchical?


    Ed is definitely a character and a fixture in NY politics.
  • kritt11
    I actually would have preferred that ticket, in that order, as well, Remember November. As a Clinton supporter who is planning on voting for Obama, I thought she would have been able to compete very well with McCain in debates, whereas that has not been Obama's strength. Those who agreed that Obama is a star who needs a little more seasoning, would have had a higher comfort level.
  • Silhouette
    Yes, the Obama position was strategically VP all along, with Clinton as the natural lead.

    As usual the democrats not only got it bass ackwards, but also cutt of the most important part of the ticket.

    But hey...at least this is a "historical" election...

    It's just that history isn't always a story of wonderful events...
  • DLS
    Dinosaur hates a non-liberal and a "hick." What's new?

    (Football -- pay attention, Elrod!) When the San Francisco Forty-Niners changed owners and converted themselves into the greatest, most successful sports organization ever (defining excellence), when they first changed and managed a comeback and win from being down 35-0 at halftime to the New Orleans Saints (the Saints shouted "Seventy points! Seventy points!" as they walked by the Niners' locker room at halftime), the next time highlights were played on Monday night, the Niners weren't featured at all(!). Walsh complained openly that there were many back East who thought they ran everything and the other teams were just chumps meant for the few elite teams to feed on during the regular season.

    Howard Cosell, from back East, confronted Walsh angrily later -- "Who do you think you are? Who the hell are you, anyway?" (The USA soon learned, for many years.)

    We're seeing the same dinosaur response with Koch, toward Palin.

    It's the behavior of *** KOCH *** and what he represents here, the dinosaur-elite crowd, that makes real Americans say, "Yuck." Palin just got boosted a notch.

    And Obama supporters, take note and be very careful how you represent who you are and what you want for this country. Retrogression into Koch-World is NOT what the public wants!
  • RememberNovember
    Trust me, NY in Koch times was faaaarr different from what it is under Bloomberg.

    "real Americans" as opposed to American Idolized action figures?
  • kritt11
    I actually agree with Sil. No matter how you cut it, the Democrats shot themselves in the foot by dividing the party virtually in half, too close to the '08 election. It enabled McCain to capitalize on the party's dissarray--- especially feminist discontent with the primary results. A Clinton/Obama ticket would have been unbeatable. No one would even care about Palin and her secessionist spouse right now.
  • sherrie220
    "..But no, it was more important to make (black, not female) history so we opted for the lesser candidate."

    This election has nothing to do with making black history, although it has already been made. People like you can't see past race or gender and you probably voted for Clinton only because she was a woman and it was more important to you to make that history. Shouldn't we be voting on the issues? Hillary will have her turn, probably 4 years from now. She lost, get over it!
  • kritt11
    I will say that I like both Obama and Clinton, but that doesn't mean that I think they are both equally qualified for the nation's top office. And , while no one should vote solely based on gender or race, it is time that we have serious candidates that are not all middle-aged white Christian males.
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