Julie Nixon Eisenhower, the daughter of former president Richard Nixon and his wife Pat, has donated $2,300 to Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, the maximum amount allowed for the primary election cycle.
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Julie and her husband David Eisenhower are both directors of the Republican Leadership Council, a political action committee “which advocates for the historic Republican principles of liberty, individual responsibility, and personal freedom,” according to the PAC web site.
David Eisenhower is the grandson of President Dwight Eisenhower. Richard Nixon was his vice president and David and Julie reportedly met at the 1956 Republican National Convention.
Susan Eisenhower, Julie Nixon Eisenhower’s sister-in-law and a granddaughter of President Eisenhower, also supports Barack Obama. In February, the Washington Post published an opinion piece by Susan Eisenhower entitled “Why I’m Backing Obama.”
In the op-ed she seems to be taking aim at the policies of the current president when she quotes her grandfather:
“As we peer into society’s future,” he said, we “must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering, for our own ease and convenience, the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without risking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow.”
She notes that her grandfather won the election with the support of Democrats and Republicans attracted to his pledge to bring change to Washington. She continues:
It is in this great tradition of crossover voters that I support Barack Obama’s candidacy for president. If the Democratic Party chooses Obama as its candidate, this lifelong Republican will work to get him elected and encourage him to seek strategic solutions to meet America’s greatest challenges. To be successful, our president will need bipartisan help.
Tricia Nixon Cox, Julie Nixon Eisenhower’s sister, and her husband Edward Cox are both supporters of the presumptive GOP nominee John McCain.
Obviously, the Kennedys don’t have a monopoly on lively conversation at family gatherings.