Democrat Barack Obama on Saturday picked up an endorsement from a surprising source  - lifelong Republican Susan Eisenhower,  granddaughter of Republican former President Dwight D. Eisenhower

Writing in the Washington Post opinion pages, Eisenhower notes that in 1952 the former World War Two general was courted by both political parties to run for president, but ultimately ran as a Republican, and won with considerable help from crossover voters of the “Democrats for Eisenhower” movement.

“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,” Eisenhower wrote.

Without naming President George W. Bush, Eisenhower lamented that the United States is now disliked overseas, feels insecure at home, is engaged in “a costly, unpopular war,” has a federal budget that “hemorrhages red ink,” and has seen its “civil liberties eroded.”

Eisenhower cited Obama’s support among young people as a reason
that he “will be most invested in defending the interests of these rising generations.”

“Without his leadership, our children and grandchildren are at risk of growing older in a marginalized country that is left to its anger and divisions. Such an outcome would be an unacceptable legacy for any great nation,” she wrote.

Eisenhower is a business consultant and author.

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Photo credit: Reuters/Larry Downing (U.S. President George W. Bush and Susan Eisenhower stand at attention and honor the flag during the official renaming of the Old Executive Office Building in honor of former President Dwight D. Eisenhower, May 7, 2002.)