Buckley Endorses Obama

The appeal here is not primarily that Christopher Buckley's endorsement of Obama bears his famous name. It's a genuinely well thought out and occasionally funny libertarian-for-Obama piece.

Wick Allison wrote a libertarian-for-Obama piece a few months back that focused on Obama's qualities. There's a bit of that here. Buckley mentions Obama's intellect (but half dismisses it). Buckley's piece is more interesting for his discussion of McCain. It's a completely tragic depiction. McCain has been a paragon of qualities that should be in all of our leaders.

But that was—sigh—then. John McCain has changed. He said, famously, apropos the Republican debacle post-1994, “We came to Washington to change it, and Washington changed us.” This campaign has changed John McCain.

It should be noted that the National Review has since accepted Buckley's resignation.

(Right after this story broke, he appeared on the Daily Show in an interview worth checking out.)

UPDATE 10/23: Touched up, added links.