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frazzled

(18,402 posts)
7. He is a fiscal conservative and calls himself a Republican
Sat Jun 21, 2014, 02:34 PM
Jun 2014

He has also been the sole vocal opponent to putting an Obama Presidential Library on the U of C campus, because it would "celebrate" him.

As soon as I saw the Sun-Times’s headline last week, “U. of C. prof wants to shelve Obama library idea,” I knew the story was about Charles Lipson. In the article, by Abdon Pallasch, the political science professor objects to housing the Obama complex because it will contain not only a library, which is appropriate on a university campus, but also a “celebratory museum,” which Lipson deems inappropriate. I’ve known Lipson for several years from appearing together on Bruce Dumont’s Beyond the Beltway, and I wasn’t surprised that the prof—a fiscally conservative, socially liberal southerner who has finally come around to calling himself a Republican—was opposed to a project that most universities would kill to have (think millions of visitors and dollars, hugely heightened visibility).

The 64-year-old Lipson has taught at the University of Chicago since 1977, and while he has never been simpatico politically with his colleagues, this recent, public warning that the Hyde Park institution should not house the Barack Obama presidential library will not endear him to his colleagues in his department, much less the University.

...

CF: Will you vote for Obama in 2012?
CL: No, I’m voting for Romney. I now consider myself a Republican. For many, many, many years I was a Democrat. When I voted for McCain, that was the first time I voted for a Republican in years. I did not vote for George W. Bush [in 2000] even though I thought Gore was a weak candidate. I thought you shouldn’t be awarded for big mistakes, and Bush had made very big mistakes, so I voted for Kerry

http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/Felsenthal-Files/July-2012/Charles-Lipson-on-the-Obama-Library-and-Being-a-Republican-at-the-U-of-C/

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