Interview: Kenneth Adelman
Updated on 21 October 2008
Republican heavyweight Ken Adelman declares his support for Democrat presidential candidate Barack Obama.
The former adviser to Ronald Reagan - and renowned right-winger - has described Obama as a "wondrous man" and slated the Republican campaign.
The 62-year-old told Channel 4 News: "This is not easy for me because I have never voted for a Democrat for president during my whole life; I have never even considered it; I have never even come close to it.
"When I saw McCain in the first week of the economic meltdown I felt that he was bouncing off the walls. That's not how a president should act during a crisis.
"Obama tilted his position a bit, but it was a lot better than McCain."
Adelman said McCain's choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate was doomed.
He said: "All McCain's talk about going for experience was blown out of the water when Palin was appointed.
"He [McCain] didn't put country first, he didn't value experience. If experience counts, he didn't make it count in his judgement."
"A lot of people said Ronald Reagan didn't know issues that well, but he spent much of his adult life doing columns and radio interviews - he cared about issues. He was serious in that sense. You don't have any of that with Sarah Palin."
Adelman said he was not concerned about Obama's military credentials.
He said: "I don't consider Obama to be a peacenik; number one he will immediately restore some of the lost American prestige overseas, it has killed me in recent years to hear that people in Britain and Europe think poorly of the United States. We are a much better country now than our ratings suggest.
"There is a lot of anti-Americanism that will be evaporated when we have Obama as the face of America. Number two - when he speaks - I just don't see a pacifistic commander in chief.
"John McCain just wasn't the right person for the time. I think he [Obama] is a wondrous person."
