Kemp calls out Obama at Beaver Creek fund-raiser

Seems as if former National Football League quarterback, New York congressman and 1996 Republican vice-presidential candidate Jack Kemp’s willingness to defend presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama extends only so far.


In March the part-time Vail Valley resident and self-described "bleeding-heart conservative" took on uber-patriot radio and TV commentator Sean Hannity on FOX’s "Hannity & Colmes" show over the Obama-Rev. Jeremiah Wright controversy, saying Obama didn’t subscribe to Wright’s allegedly un-American views.


But Tuesday night in Beaver Creek, at a John McCain fund-raiser at the home of state House candidate Ali Hasan, the socially moderate but fiscally conservative Kemp, who engineered two Reagan administration tax cuts, reportedly defended McCain on his supposed greatest weakness and called out Obama as an ultra-liberal.


"[McCain] understands the economy a heck of a lot better than Barack Obama," Kemp told the gathering of local Republicans, according to the Vail Daily. "And Obama’s not John F. Kennedy. Barack Obama is George McGovern and Jimmy Carter redux."


Also in attendance was McCain delegate and Vail resident Tom Kirk, who was shot down over Vietnam within days of McCain’s also being shot down. The two men were held captive together in the Hanoi Hilton.

is an award-winning reporter who has covered energy, environmental and political issues for years. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Chicago Tribune and Denver Post. He's founder of Real Vail and Real Aspen.