May 22 (Bloomberg) -- Billionaire investor Carl Icahn said Barack Obama would be a ``terrible'' U.S. president whose election would bring higher interest rates and a loss of international confidence in the dollar.
``I don't normally get involved in politics, but this time I am,'' Icahn told an investors conference in New York last night. ``I don't think Obama really understands economics.''
The Obama campaign referred a request for comment to UBS Americas Chairman Robert Wolf, a fundraiser. ``Senator Obama has a very smart plan to help our nation come out of and recover more quickly from our economic downturn,'' Wolf said in an e-mail.
Obama, of Illinois, is closing in on the Democratic presidential nomination. He has 1,962 delegates, according to an Associated Press tally, 64 delegates shy of the 2,026 needed to clinch the nomination.
``I personally think he would be a terrible president,'' Icahn, 72, said. Obama would probably go on a ``huge spending spree'' that ``the country can't afford right now.''
Coupled with the higher tax rates that the Illinois senator has already endorsed, ``you would have a loss of confidence in the dollar,'' leading to accelerating inflation and ``much higher interest rates,'' Icahn said. His comments, and remarks by other presenters at the conference, were embargoed by the organizers until this morning.
Even worse, Icahn said, would be a Democratic president with a veto-proof supermajority of 60 Democrats elected to the Senate.
`Runaway Legislation'
``It would be devastating,'' he said. ``Then you couldn't stop runaway legislation.''
Earlier this year, Icahn donated the maximum $2,300 to the presidential campaign of Republican Rudy Giuliani, according to the Washington-based Center for Responsive Politics. Giuliani dropped out of the race. Icahn has also given to Democrats, including New Hampshire Senate candidate Jeanne Shaheen.
Obama, 46, does have support in the investment community from leaders such as Wolf. Among those who have donated to his campaign are billionaires Kenneth C. Griffin of Citadel Investment Group in Chicago, and George Soros of Soros Fund Management, according to the center.
Obama's ``second stimulus package includes a foreclosure prevention fund for current homeowners, provides needed dollars to states hardest hit by the housing crisis and a temporary expansion of unemployment insurance,'' Wolf said in his e-mail.
The senator's long-term plan to cut taxes will benefit more than 150 million working Americans and won't increase the budget deficit, Wolf said.
