Former GOP senator, vet backs Obama

[Sinister]

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."

The former senator added that he hoped the next president would help place restraints on executive pay, and said: "I don't think [McCain] will take action in that area, or he's as likely to."

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."

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1008/14963.html

[db44]

Hopefully this is a new age. Not in the sense of Obama per se, but that there is a growing faction of people reaching across the aisle to support him.

Heck, if many Conservatives are saying Obama's financial plans are better than McCain, that's saying a lot.

[Murrican]

Irony is that McCain has a bipartisan voting record and Obama has a partisan voting record...

[DoubleEdgeSword]

McCain is looking like the more volatile candidate, though. And of course, there's the old adage about the sinking ship.