by Denis Campbell
Newspaper Editorial Board endorsements are overwhelmingly going to Senator Barack Obama by a continually growing margin of almost 4:1. McCain did not pick up an endorsement yesterday. While the more traditionally liberal newspapers such as The Boston Globe, Washington Post and San Francisco Chronicle all support Obama, there are a number of surprises on the list.
If a candidate gets one, the campaign trumpets the news from the highest tower. If it fails, “well… they are not really indicative of how voters feel” or “that board is very much out of touch” any SPIN along those lines works. The New York Times is expected to announce its choice next week and they will likely endorse Obama.
The single biggest repeating factor is the disastrous choice of unqualified Governor Palin as his running mate. Most then site the disastrous, schizophrenic campaign messaging and internal squabbling while pointing to Obama’s machine-like, cool, confident, no-drama approach to campaigning and messaging.
Editor and Publisher wrote: “The Denver Post, which had backed George W. Bush in 2004 and is owned by Republican-leaning William Dean Singleton, this evening endorsed Barack Obama for president. So did the Chicago Sun-Times, Kansas City Star, Southwest News-Herald (Ill.) and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. And another Bush-backer in 2004, The Salt Lake Tribune. (Ed. – COLORADO?!? UTAH?!?!)
This followed this afternoon’s surprises: the Chicago Tribune, which has never in 150 years endorsed a Democrat, backed Obama, as did its fellow Tribune paper, the Los Angeles – which had endorsed no one in more than 30-years and The Washington Post. Obama now leads 58-16 in editorial endorsements.”
This is the time of the campaign when endorsements traditionally come in droves. The debates have ended, the public is forming their final opinions, most have interviewed the candidates extensively and their reporters and editorial board members have followed the campaigns around for 20-months. The Washington Post endorsement caused the dam to break and a flood of major endorsements came in yesterday.
While McCain can count on a firm endorsement from Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity and the clowns over at FOX News, there are precious few places left where he has any support.
Obama is loathe to hear anyone utter the “L” word but it is looking better by the day.
Tote Board
JOHN McCAIN
16 newspapers total
1,502,163 daily circulation
CALIFORNIA
Napa Valley Register: 16,283
The San Francisco Examiner (B): 80,000
COLORADO
Mountain Valley News (Cedaredge): 2,000
The Daily Sentinel (Grand Junction) (B): 31,349
The Pueblo Chieftain (B): 49,169
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
The Washington DC Examiner (N/A): 100,073
MARYLAND
The Baltimore Examiner (N/A): 50,000
MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Herald (B): 182,350
The (Lowell) Sun (B): 44,439
NEW HAMPSHIRE
Foster’s Daily Democrat (B): 22,547
Union Leader (Manchester) (B): 51,782
NEW YORK
New York Post (B): 702,488
OHIO
The (Findlay) Courier (B): 22,319
TEXAS
Amarillo Globe-News (B): 44,764
WASHINGTON
(Spokane) Spokesman-Review (B): 89,779
WEST VIRGINIA
Wheeling News-Register (B): 12,821
BARACK OBAMA
57 newspapers total
over 7 million circulation (we are still counting)
ARKANSAS
Arkansas Times (K): 34,000
CALIFORNIA
The Argus (Fremont) (K): 26,749
Contra Costa Times (Walnut Creek) (K): 183,086
Daily Review (Hayward) (K): 30,704
The Fresno Bee (K): 150,334
La Opinion (Los Angeles) (K): 114,892
Los Angeles Times (N/A): 773,884
The Modesto Bee (K): 78,001
The Monterey County Herald (K): 28,933
Oakland Tribune (K): 96,535
The (Stockton) Record (B): 57,486
The Sacramento Bee (K): 288,755
San Bernardino Sun (B): 54,315
San Francisco Chronicle (K): 370,345
San Jose Mercury News (K): 234,772
San Mateo County Times (K): 25,982
Santa Cruz Sentinel (K): 23,290
Tri-Valley Herald (B): 29,759
COLORADO
Cortez Journal (K): 6,700
The Denver Post (B)
The Durango Herald (K): 8,870
Gunnison Country Times (N/A): 4,000
Ouray County Plaindealer (K): 3,000
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
The Washington Post (K): 673,180
GEORGIA
Atlanta Journal-Constitution (K)
HAWAII
Honolulu Star-Bulletin (K): 64,305
ILLINOIS
Chicago Tribune (B): 541,663
Chicago Sun-Times (K):
Southwest News-Herald (K)
IOWA
The Storm Lake Times (K): 3,200
KANSAS
Kansas City Star
MASSACHUSETTS
The Boston Globe (K): 350,605
The Standard-Times (New Bedford) (K): 30,306
MICHIGANjavascript:iw_wizard_doFinish()
The Muskegon Chronicle (K): 41,114
MISSOURI
St. Louis Post-Dispatch (K): 255,057
NEW MEXICO
Santa Fe New Mexican (K): 25,249
NEW YORK
el Dario La Prensa (): 53,856
NORTH CAROLINA
Asheville Citizen-Times (K): 50,160
OHIO
The (Toledo) Blade (K): 119,901
Dayton Daily News (K): 116,690
The (Canton) Repository (B): 65,789
Springfield News-Sun (K): 24,684
OREGON
Mail Tribune (Medford) (K): 30,349
PENNSYLVANIA
The Express-Times (Easton) (B): 44,561
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (K): 214,374
TENNESSEE
Chattanooga Times (K): 71,716
The Commercial Appeal (Memphis) (K): 146,961
The (Nashville) Tennessean (K): 161,131
TEXAS
The Lufkin Daily News (K): 12,225
UTAH
The Salt Lake Tribune (B):
VIRGINIA
Falls Church News-Press (K): 30,500
WASHINGTON
The Columbian (B): 44,623
Seattle Post-Intelligencer (K): 129,563
The Seattle Times (K): 220,883
WEST VIRGINIA
The Charleston Gazette (K): 48,061
WISCONSIN
The Capital Times (Madison) (K): 16,335
Wisconsin State Journal (Madison) (B): 87,930
Actually, the “Washington Post” took a decidedly conservative turn after Kate Graham died. Editorially, it was a trumpet for the Iraq War, for the Patriot Act, for warrentless wiretapping and all of the other criminal acts of the Bush administration. Before invading Iraq, it buried stories in the back of the paper from its national security correspondent that covered the disturbing (but inconvenient) news that the intelligence community was deeply divided over whether Saddam had WMDs. Its front pages were covered with White House and Pentagon lies that went unchallenged by the rest of its news staff.
So, for Obama to pick up the Post’s endorsement not only is important, it is totally surprising.
– Charley
You are right Charley. I was hearkening back to our youth when Katherine Graham was the liberal media scion.