Wednesday, October 15, 2008

National Review Fires Chris Buckley for Endorsing Obama

The Washington Post reports today that the National Review, bulwark of conservative thought founded by William F. Buckley, accepted the resignation of the founder's son, Christopher Buckley.

Buckley delivered his endorsement of the Democratic presidential nominee last Thursday in the cyberpages of the Daily Beast, a new, blog-heavy Web site launched by Tina Brown, the former editor of Vanity Fair and the New Yorker. "I went out of my way to spare NR from being associated with this endorsement," Buckley said.

The barrage of e-mails to the publication precipitated Buckley's offer of resignation which was accepted forthwith. It makes perfect sense to me that a conservative magazine would insist that their contributors pull the company line. What do you think?

Here's the story in his own words. (via Patrick)


Does this sound like disloyalty to the Party or to his family tradition? Or did Christopher Buckley experience a gradual transition in his perceptions? Here are some of his reasons:

As for Senator Obama: He has exhibited throughout a “first-class temperament,” pace Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.’s famous comment about FDR. As for his intellect, well, he’s a Harvard man, though that’s sure as heck no guarantee of anything, these days.

I’ve read Obama’s books, and they are first-rate. He is that rara avis, the politician who writes his own books.

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.

Please feel free to leave a comment.

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