Charles
Fried, a professor at Harvard Law School,
has long been one of the most important conservative thinkers in the United States. Under
President Reagan, he served, with great distinction, as Solicitor General of
the United States.
Since then, he has been prominently associated with several Republican leaders
and candidates, most recently John McCain, for whom he expressed his enthusiastic
support in January.
This
week, Fried announced that he has voted for Obama-Biden by absentee ballot. In
his letter to Trevor Potter, the General Counsel to the McCain-Palin campaign,
he asked that his name be removed from the several campaign-related committees
on which he serves. In that letter, he said that chief among the reasons for
his decision "is the choice of Sarah Palin at a time of deep national
crisis."
Fried
is exceptionally thoughtful and principled; his vote for Obama is especially
noteworthy.
--Cass. R. Sunstein
UPDATE: Fried writes to TNR: I admire Senator McCain and was glad to help in his campaign, and to be listed
as doing so; but when I concluded that I must vote for Obama for the reason
stated in my letter, I felt it wrong to appear to be recommending to others a
vote that I was not prepared to cast myself. So it was more of an erasure
than a public affirmation--although obviously my vote meant that I thought that
Obama was preferable to McCain-Palin. I do not consider abstention a proper
option.