I mentioned this yesterday, as the newspaper endorsements come through its becoming more and more obvious that the Palin endorsement and the nasty tone of the McCain campaign is costing him big time. I remained convinced that a significant number of newspapers endorsed Obama might have endorsed McCain if it were not for the way he ran his campaign.
Take a look at some of the Obama endorsements and how they address the McCain campaign:
Bangor Daily News-snip-
This paper has long respected and supported John McCain, especially his efforts, often along with Maine’s senators, on climate change, campaign finance reform and government spending. That John McCain is not running for president.
The Sen. McCain on the Nov. 4 ballot favors extending the fiscally irresponsible Bush tax cuts when the “maverick” voted against them in the Senate. The Sen. McCain running for president says he is firmly pro-life although he previously said he would oppose overturning Roe v. Wade because that would cause women to have dangerous illegal abortions.
Sen. McCain, who has a long record of distinguished service to his country, has compromised his principles to get elected. His reckless choice of Sarah Palin, the folksy but untested and incurious governor of the country’s most government-dependent state, as his running mate is a prime example. Worse is his tolerance of his campaign’s desperate attempts to paint Sen. Obama as a friend of terrorists because he served on a board with William Ayers, a member of the radical 1960s group the Weather Underground.As conservative columnist George Will wrote last month: “It is arguable that, because of his inexperience, Obama is not ready for the presidency. It is arguable that McCain, because of his boiling moralism and bottomless reservoir of certitudes, is not suited to the presidency. Unreadiness can be corrected, although perhaps at great cost, by experience. Can a dismaying temperament be fixed?”
With a record number of Americans believing the country is on the wrong track, strong leadership and a commitment to moving in a new direction are needed. While his opponents have derided Sen. Obama’s talk of hope and unity as empty slogans, the popularity of his campaign shows that the country is eager for positive leadership, not a continuation of the divisiveness fostered by the Bush administration.
-snip-
http://www.bangordailynews.com/detail/91403.htmlChicago Tribune-snip-
We might have counted on John McCain to correct his party's course. We like McCain. We endorsed him in the Republican primary in Illinois. In part because of his persuasion and resolve, the U.S. stands to win an unconditional victory in Iraq.
It is, though, hard to figure John McCain these days. He argued that President Bush's tax cuts were fiscally irresponsible, but he now supports them. He promises a balanced budget by the end of his first term, but his tax cut plan would add an estimated $4.2 trillion in debt over 10 years. He has responded to the economic crisis with an angry, populist message and a misguided, $300 billion proposal to buy up bad mortgages.
McCain failed in his most important executive decision. Give him credit for choosing a female running mate--but he passed up any number of supremely qualified Republican women who could have served. Having called Obama not ready to lead, McCain chose Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. His campaign has tried to stage-manage Palin's exposure to the public. But it's clear she is not prepared to step in at a moment's notice and serve as president. McCain put his campaign before his country.-snip-
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-chicago-tribune-endorsement,0,1371034.storyWashington Post-snip-
IT GIVES US no pleasure to oppose Mr. McCain. Over the years, he has been a force for principle and bipartisanship. He fought to recognize Vietnam, though some of his fellow ex-POWs vilified him for it. He stood up for humane immigration reform, though he knew Republican primary voters would punish him for it. He opposed torture and promoted campaign finance reform, a cause that Mr. Obama injured when he broke his promise to accept public financing in the general election campaign. Mr. McCain staked his career on finding a strategy for success in Iraq when just about everyone else in Washington was ready to give up. We think that he, too, might make a pretty good president.
But the stress of a campaign can reveal some essential truths, and the picture of Mr. McCain that emerged this year is far from reassuring. To pass his party's tax-cut litmus test, he jettisoned his commitment to balanced budgets. He hasn't come up with a coherent agenda, and at times he has seemed rash and impulsive.
And we find no way to square his professed passion for America's national security with his choice of a running mate who, no matter what her other strengths, is not prepared to be commander in chief. -snip-
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/16/AR2008101603436.html?hpid=opinionsbox1Los Angeles Times-snip-
John McCain distinguished himself through much of the Bush presidency by speaking out against reckless and self-defeating policies. He earned The Times' respect, and our endorsement in the California Republican primary, for his denunciation of torture, his readiness to close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and his willingness to buck his party on issues such as immigration reform. But the man known for his sense of honor and consistency has since announced that he wouldn't vote for his own immigration bill, and he redefined "torture" in such a disingenuous way as to nearly embrace what he once abhorred.
Indeed, the presidential campaign has rendered McCain nearly unrecognizable.
His selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate was, as a short-term political tactic, brilliant. It was also irresponsible, as Palin is the most unqualified vice presidential nominee of a major party in living memory. The decision calls into question just what kind of thinking -- if that's the appropriate word -- would drive the White House in a McCain presidency. Fortunately, the public has shown more discernment, and the early enthusiasm for Palin has given way to national ridicule of her candidacy and McCain's judgment.-snip-
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-endorse19-2008oct19,0,5198206.storyAtlanta Journal Constitution-snip-
In fact, the competence of McCain’s campaign staff is itself cause to question the candidate’s executive abilities. To some degree, the rigors of creating and running a campaign organization can be a test of the skills needed to create and run an administration. And even many Republicans acknowledge that the McCain campaign has been poorly organized and erratic, lurching from one crisis to another without the sense of a strong hand at the tiller.
Columnist William Kristol, a longtime McCain backer, calls the McCain campaign “close to being out–and–out dysfunctional,” concluding that “its combination of strategic incoherence and operational incompetence has become toxic.”
And of course, the most unfortunate evidence of that “strategic incoherence and operational incompetence” was McCain’s selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate, a person utterly unprepared for the high post in question.-snip-
http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/stories/2008/10/19/prezed_1019.htmlSan Francisco Chronicle-snip-
McCain's running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, has been largely sequestered from the news media since her selection in late August. She has yet to have anything resembling a traditional news conference, where the full range of her knowledge and views can be explored. Her avoidance of questions and reliance on cue-card talking points in the one vice presidential debate did nothing to allay doubts about whether the 44-year-old governor of two years is capable of assuming the reins of the presidency. Her selection was but an act of political calculation by McCain.The erstwhile appeal of "maverick" McCain, 72, has been further undercut by his tack to the right on the Bush tax cuts (which he initially resisted), his newfound allegiance to the religious right (in 2000, he called its leaders "agents of intolerance") and the low tone of his campaign in recent weeks (with attempts to portray Obama as a "pal of terrorists").
-snip-
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/10/17/EDLP13H6V9.DTLThe Tennessean-snip-
Further, Obama demonstrated sound judgment in selecting as his running mate Sen. Joe Biden, whose experience and knowledge of foreign policy prepare him to step in if need be as chief executive.
McCain's selection of Gov. Sarah Palin, by comparison, may have shown political savvy, but at the expense of offering a vice president the country could rally around.-snip-
http://tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081013/OPINION01/810120372/1007/OPINIONDayton Daily News-snip-
Sen. McCain's campaign has been as disappointing as his move toward party orthodoxy. More than his opponent, he has run a relentless stream of commercials that have been discredited by nonpartisan fact-checkers. (Last week, all his ads were negative.)
He has articulated no vision for the country other than to suggest that it should believe in him as an individual, as a war hero of independent judgment.
His selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate was stunning. She is shockingly lacking in presidential qualifications. Some of Sen. McCain's most enthusiastic supporters have been forced to admit this. Her defenders say her resume compares well with Sen. Obama's, but it does not.Alaska is tiny in population and atypical in its issues. And she'd been governor for only a year and a half when she was tapped. At any rate, as some interviews have shown, she's no Barack Obama.
Sen. McCain presents her as a fellow "maverick." Nonsense. The important sense in which he's been a maverick has been his willingness to flout conservative orthodoxy. But she's an orthodox conservative and then some, opposing abortion even in cases of rape and incest, and, for example, long denying man-made global warming.
Was Sen. McCain, in selecting her, making a cynical effort to get the hard-core conservatives excited? Or was he just wrong about how unready she is? It hardly matters. He royally blew the most important decision he has ever had to make in politics.The selection undercuts Sen. McCain's effort to sell himself as the one who is most ready for the presidency. So does another momentous decision.
-snip-
http://www.daytondailynews.com/o/content/oh/story/opinions/editorial/2008/10/12/ddn101208obamaxxmg.html
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
