(CNN) - No, hell has not frozen over, but a Buckley is backing a Democrat for president.
Christopher Buckley, the son of the late conservative icon William F. Buckley, said Friday he's decided to back Barack Obama's White House bid, the first time in his life he will vote Democrat.
“It’s a good thing my dear old mum and pup [sic] are no longer alive. They’d cut off my allowance," Buckley, a columnist for the conservative National Review, wrote on the Web site The Daily Beast Friday.
Buckley, who praised McCain in a New York Times Op-Ed earlier this year and defended the Arizona senator's conservative credentials against wary talk-radio hosts, said McCain is no longer the “real” and “unconventional” man he once admired.
"This campaign has changed John McCain," Buckley wrote. "It has made him inauthentic. A once-first class temperament has become irascible and snarly; his positions change, and lack coherence; he makes unrealistic promises, such as balancing the federal budget 'by the end of my first term.' Who, really, believes that?
"Then there was the self-dramatizing and feckless suspension of his campaign over the financial crisis," Buckley added. "His ninth-inning attack ads are mean-spirited and pointless. And finally, not to belabor it, there was the Palin nomination. What on earth can he have been thinking?"
But Buckley made clear he's not just voting against McCain, praising Obama for his "first-class temperament and first-class intellect."
"Obama has in him—I think, despite his sometimes airy-fairy 'We are the people we have been waiting for' silly rhetoric—the potential to be a good, perhaps even great leader. He is, it seems clear enough, what the historical moment seems to be calling for," Buckley wrote.
From CNN Politics
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He's not a conservative. CNN is just showing how biased they are.
WOOOOOOOWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!! That is a surprise
"That one" 08!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Even is own people turn their back turn toward Mcsame...
"This election is over." – Ed Rollins, Republican Strategist.
YES!!!! GO BUCKLEY! You've chosen the right candidate!!
Obama in '08!
WOW! See everybody, smears turn people off big time even conservatives.
The decision shouldn't be difficult. There really isn't any choice but Obama in this election. Buckley is right – Obama has the potential to be a good leader. He is intelligent, thoughtful and respected.
Obama/Biden '08
The politics of fear have no place in this country – or in the world. Hopefully, everyone can reason and make a rational decision this election. Here is an example of someone who did, despite his party affiliations. This year, a vote for the Obama ticket brigs the hope of prosperity and change for the nation.
And I quote regarding the Palin pick.
" What was he thinking"?
She is as dense as early morning fog!
HILARIOUS!!!
McCain, even your OWN supporters are endorsing Barack Obama!!!
LOL!!!!
Say hello to PRESIDENT OBAMA!!!!
Obama Biden 'O8
It is, indeed, a great day when once hardcore Republicans peel off their blindfolds, see the light, and back the only truly deserving candidate in this whitehouse race, Barack Obama! Huzzah!
Wow. Putting country before party. How about that. You go Mr. B.
Funny how so many freaked out conservatives are trying to convince everyone that Obama will be a socialist takeover, yet Buckley along with other powerful wealthy figures are backing Obama. Warren Buffet, one of the wealthiest men in the world and a brilliant capitalist is backing Obama too. Even Rupert Murdoch once said he was considering backing Obama. All the republicans have left are fear tactics.
As an independent voter Buckley has (suprisingly) summed up my feelings about John MCCain, a man I once respected. I couldn't imagine the damage McCain would do as President. His lust for power has made him virtually unrecognizable. A McCain presidency promises nothing but partisianship, divisivness, and hatred. This election has taken an ugly turn for the worse and I think McCain and his advisors have badly mis-judged the electorate.
Even a Republican can smell the fish.
And yet another nail is hammered into the coffin.
Your dad would be proud that you followed your common sense, and didn't not stick to prideful rhetoric. Welcome Aboard.
Obama/Biden 08 had a big tent.
Thank you, Christopher Buckley.
Yea your mommy and daddy would not like you supporting a man that likes to be friends with anti-americans and believes he is the messiah.
I have never in my life of 72 years seen such awful behavior from
political candidates as Palen and McCain.
They are using fear for votes...and inciting people to riot....don't we have enough problems in the world ...without them creating more.
We must look like barbarians to the world watching such dispicable
acts of indecency.....obviously you do not want them in the White House representing America to the World.
.....and so the landslide begins.
THAT ONE/ THE OTHER ONE '08/12!!!!!
Still wish McCain would've had it in 2000...
But yes... now is the time for Obama.
Go Obama/Biden. Yes we can. Yes we will.
I like Buckley!
The entire world is for Obama. McCain and Palin and the racist idiots who support them are the only ones who didn't get the invitation to the way the country should be in 2008. ONE NATION UNDER GOD together united not divided as McCain and Palin would have it to be.