Top Democratic fundraiser backs McCain over ObamaWASHINGTON (AFP) ? A former supporter and generous donor to Hillary Clinton announced she had endorsed Republican John McCain for president, saying she did so because the Democratic nominee Barack Obama was too elitist.
Even before jumping ship for the McCain campaign, Lynn Forester de Rothschild did not hide her dislike for Obama, who narrowly defeated Clinton in a months-long battle for the Democratic nomination.
In July she told CNN: "Frankly I don't like him. I feel like he is an elitist. I feel like he has not given me reason to trust him."
Rothschild, wife of British banker Sir Evelyn de Rothschild, and long-time member of the Democratic Party,
gave more than 100,000 dollars to Clinton's failed bid for the party's nomination.
"Senator Clinton disagrees with her decision," said Clinton spokeswoman Kathleen Strand.
Appearing on CNN Wednesday, Rothschild backtracked somewhat to stress that she didn't not like Obama, but "I said critical things about him because I don't think he should be president in this election."
Rothschild said she was
resigning Wednesday from the Democratic National Committee's platform committee, but that she would remain a registered Democrat.
Former president "Ronald Reagan might have said it right, the Democratic Party left me, I didn't leave the Democratic Party," she said.
As Rothschild announced her defection to McCain, the Obama campaign lauded an endorsement from Lilly Ledbetter, an Alabama woman whose fight for equal pay led her to the US Supreme Court.
At a campaign event focusing on the economy in Richmond, Virginia, Ledbetter heralded Obama for supporting fair pay legislation that bears her name.
Speaking about Obama, Ledbetter said: "There is only one candidate who has stood up for women like me, who has consistently fought to help women who are working hard every day for our families and aren't being paid fairly."
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