Newspaper Presidential Endorsements Rising

Perhaps we needed to have an end to the presidential debates. Maybe the editorial boards had already made up their minds, but today we begin to see a flurry of endorsements from major metropolitan newspapers.

For Obama

The Los Angeles Times:

"We need a leader who demonstrates thoughtful calm and grace under pressure, one not prone to volatile gesture or capricious pronouncement. We need a leader well-grounded in the intellectual and legal foundations of American freedom. Yet we ask that the same person also possess the spark and passion to inspire the best within us: creativity, generosity and a fierce defense of justice and liberty.”

“The Times without hesitation endorses Barack Obama for president.”

The Washington Post:

“Yet it is without ambivalence that we endorse Sen. Barack Obama for president.”

“The choice is made easy in part by Mr. McCain's disappointing campaign, above all his irresponsible selection of a running mate who is not ready to be president. It is made easy in larger part, though, because of our admiration for Mr. Obama and the impressive qualities he has shown during this long race. Yes, we have reservations and concerns, almost inevitably, given Mr. Obama's relatively brief experience in national politics. But we also have enormous hopes.”

The Chigago Tribune:

“It's the first time the paper has endorsed the Democratic Party's nominee for president. But the editorial board declares Obama the right man ‘to lead us through a perilous time and restore in us a common sense of national
purpose.’”

The San Francisco Chronicle:

“Sen. John McCain magnified the aura of crisis, "suspending" his campaign to return to Washington, where his role in negotiations was at best tangential. Sen. Barack Obama was a portrait of calmness and deliberation, reminding Americans that it is possible for a leader to juggle more than one task at a time...”

La Prensa (New York):

“The nation also needs a humane and sensible immigration policy. While Sen. John McCain once appeared as a reasonable interlocutor on immigration reform, hegradually pandered to Republican ultra conservatives by promoting a two-step process emphasizing border enforcement. Sen. Obama clearly outlines a far superior plan that will take a smarter approach to immigration, including bringing undocumented immigrants out of the shadows.”

For McCain

Now the question is, which major metropolitan newspapers are endorsing John McCain? Yes, you guessed it.

Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post:

“McCain has been in Washington for many years now, but he is not of Washington. He knows where the levers of power are located - and how to manipulate them - but he is not controlled by them.”

“McCain's selection of the charming, but rock-solid, outsider Sarah Palin as his running mate underscores the point.”

Now newspapers don’t have electoral votes. And not being American human beings, newspapers can’t even vote at all. But from what we are seeing here, it looks like a few rocks and pebbles are being kicked loose and are pinging, pattering and bouncing down the hillside. No snapping of branches yet, let alone the nearly infrasonic sound that landslides make at the very beginning.

But it’s the beginning of the beginning, I think.