Lynn Forester de Rothschild, a prominent Hillary Clinton supporter and member of the Democratic National Committee's Platform Committee, will endorse John McCain for president on Wednesday, her spokesman tells CNN.
The announcement will take place at a news conference on Capitol Hill, just blocks away from the DNC headquarters. Forester will "campaign and help him through the election," the spokesman said of her plans to help the Republican presidential nominee.
Rothschild was a "Hillraiser" for Clinton, scaring up at least $100,000 for the nation's second most powerful female politician. Liberals are reveling in the fact that the newest McCain supporter, who also happens to be a baroness who splits her time between London and New York, has called Obama "arrogant," unable to connect with regular Americans, and "elitist."
I think this is a message McCain can use, however. "Vote McCain-Palin: So Down-to-Earth, Even Our Royals Know Elitism When They See It!"
But her move -- long in coming -- isn't meaningless, when it comes to the relations between the Clinton and Obama camps. She's probably the closest Clinton backer to defect to the Republican, who has previously touted the backing of delegates and local official whom Clinton didn't know particularly personally.
Forrester de Rothschild, by contrast, is a New York fundraiser whom Clinton knows personally. She was so close to the senator that, as I recall, that Clinton turned up at least once at her River House duplex to film a television ad.
The timing of the endorsement does risk dulling the impact of the McCain campaign's smart attack on Obama for hobnobbing with Hollywood's elite at a 28K-a-plate dinner while normal Americans suffer financial set-backs. Yesterday, McCain was contrasting his own desire to hang out with blue-collar voters in Ohio with Obama's night of Streisand serenades.
