Scared of Palin, Ed Koch Backs Obama

Former NYC mayor Ed Koch, who supported George W. Bush in 2004 and Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, has announced he's endorsing for Barack Obama. He told NY1, "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." Politico's Ben Smith asked Koch why Obama, and the 83-year-old said, "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." (Smith adds that the McCain-Palin camp says the VP candidate was just posing a "rhetorical question"). Koch also said he'd be happy to campaign for Obama.