Republican, Ed Koch has endorsed Sen. Barack Obama for President today.  When asked why, Koch said  “[McCain’s] designation of Palin as vice president.”  Koch said that he was shocked at the report about Palin banning books at the local library.  Koch went further to say.

“Any time someone goes to the library and says, ‘I want to ban books,’ and the librarian says ‘no,’ and she threatens to fire them — that’s scary,” he said. 

In Koch’s endorsement of Sen. Obama he wrote “the issue for me is who will best protect and defend America”

I have concluded that the country is safer in the hands of Barack Obama, leader of the Democratic Party and protector of the philosophy of that party. Protecting and defending the U.S. means more than defending us from foreign attacks. It includes defending the public with respect to their civil rights, civil liberties and other needs, e.g., national health insurance, the right of abortion, the continuation of Social Security, gay rights, other rights of privacy, fair progressive taxation and a host of other needs and rights.

If the vice president were ever called on to lead the country, there is no question in my mind that the experience and demonstrated judgment of Joe Biden is superior to that of Sarah Palin. Sarah Palin is a plucky, exciting candidate, but when her record is examined, she fails miserably with respect to her views on the domestic issues that are so important to the people of the U.S., and to me. Frankly, it would scare me if she were to succeed John McCain in the presidency.

This is just common sense.  Who cares if Palin is a woman, are we going to jeopardize the security of our country just to elect a female as president?