Murdoch Unlikely to Back Hillary in 2008

Newsmax | July 23 2006

Will Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton get Rupert Murdoch's vote if she runs for president in 2008?

Don't count on it.

Appearing on "The Charlie Rose Show," the media mogul said that if the 2008 presidential contest came down to a choice between Clinton, D-.N.Y., and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., he would "probably support McCain. If it was happening today, I think so."

According to the Financial Times, Murdoch's comments came just days after he hosted a New York fund-raiser for her Senate re-election campaign.

Murdoch's media holdings include the New York Post and Fox News.

His surprising decision to host a fund-raiser for Clinton was seen as a warming of relations between the two and an indication that Clinton's attempt to soften her liberal reputation was working, at least on him, according to the Times.

But Murdoch, the chairman and chief executive of News Corp., insisted that the fund-raiser was based on her performance as a senator.

He called her "a very impressive, able woman" but said he remained uncertain of her political philosophy. "Has she suddenly become a moderate and a centrist in everything or is she the old Hillary Clinton? I don't know."

According to the Times, Murdoch has been a strong supporter of Tony Blair, the British prime minister; the decision by the Sun, one of his British newspapers, to back Blair in the 1997 general election is considered to have contributed to Blair's electoral success.

Asked if he was keeping the door open to giving similar support to Clinton in 2008, Murdoch said: "I'd be very surprised if I found myself doing that." But he said Mr McCain "would be a fine president".

"I like him very much. I think he's a great natural hero, and I think he's talking a lot of sense," Murdoch said.

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