Cleveland Plain Dealer (largest paper in Ohio) Endorses President Obama

[WI_DEM]

Four years ago, this newspaper's editorial board enthusiastically endorsed Barack Obama, then a young senator from Illinois, for president of the United States. As much as we admired the long and courageous service of his Republican opponent, Sen. John McCain, we believed that the nation needed fresh ideas and the fresh start that a leader with Obama's charisma and only-in-America backstory could provide.

Today, we recommend President Obama's re-election. He has led the nation back from the brink of depression. Ohio in particular has benefited from his bold decision to revive the domestic auto industry. Because of his determination to fulfill a decades-old dream of Democrats, 30 million more Americans will soon have health insurance. His Race to the Top initiative seeded many of the education reforms embodied in Cleveland's Transformation Plan. He ended the war in Iraq and refocused the battle to disrupt al-Qaida and its terrorist allies. He ordered the risky attack inside Pakistan that killed Osama bin Laden.

http://www.cleveland.com/opinion/index.ssf/2012/10/on_the_basis_of_sound_leadersh.html

[tallahasseedem]

1. Amazing news!

Thank you!

[BraKez2]

2. Read on Twitter...

that the candidate this paper has endorsed has went on to win the state of Ohio and the Presidency in every election since... 1980

[Booster]

3. I'm getting the feeling newspeople know a lot more about the voting machines and are

showing their disdain for what is happening. What I don't understand tho why they're not screaming this on their front pages. There is just something really wrong here and our entire democracy is at stake. When the family of a candidate is running for the highest position in this country and that same family owns the voting machines just how does any one in the country not know how the election will turn out. This should be the scandal of the century and what do we get, basically crickets.

[factsarenotfair]

5. I can't fathom it either and it drives me crazy.

Do both sides have enough dirt for Mutually Assured Destruction or what???

[llamos]

22. Booster, I'm Just as Perplexed as You Are!

How this isn't electioneering is beyond me. Did we sleep through the apartheid excesses that lead to voter suppression...50 years ago?

[AnnieK401]

23. I feel the same way

This is starting to get scary. I am trying to be optimistic, and hope for the best. Not sure if that's being realistic at this point.

[DonViejo]

4. There's a consistent theme running through all

these editorials NOT endorsing Myth:

-snip-

But which Romney would they elect? The rather liberal one who ran for the Senate in 1994? The pragmatic governor? The sharply conservative candidate of this year's GOP primaries? The reborn moderate of recent weeks?

All politicians change positions over time -- Obama in 2008 shifted his position on health care reform more to the center. But Romney's frequent changes raise questions about his core principles and make his lack of policy details all the more troubling. They make you wonder if he would stand up to the more extreme elements in his own party, especially to the House Republicans who undercut Ohioan John Boehner's attempts to negotiate a deficit and debt deal.

Romney's tendency to bluster on foreign policy provides more cause for doubt. With tens of thousands of young Americans still in harm's way in Afghanistan, the United States cannot afford to be drawn into new wars without clear national interests at stake or to sap its resources in further open-ended conflicts. The Benghazi killings reveal the risks of an "Arab Spring" in which terrorists have gained new weaponry and new freedom to operate. But these challenges require inventive diplomacy and international engagement, not slogans or swagger.

-snip-

[Cha]

6. Another Strong Endorsement for President Obama

and another question Asking..Which mitt would they endorse if they even wanted to??

Thanks WI_DEM!

[progressivebydesign]

7. Great! the only thing I was frustrated with in the endorsement..

..was their calling out the President for his "attacks on Romney." Hello? How about the unbridled and accounted for cash that is being used to call the President every name in the book, on behalf of Romney?

If the media actually did their job and stopped acting like Switzerland, we wouldn't have to come out so strong.

And frankly, when the President acted like a gentleman in the first debate, the media went off on him and REWARDED Mitt for being rude, aggressive, mean, and sweaty.

[xtraxritical]

16. In the first debate I think the President was playing "rope a dope" with Rmoney

to give him a false sense of superiority, he then proceeded to decimate Rmoney in the second debate. I think it was a brilliant strategy but no one in the media seems to have gotten it.

[BlueDemKev]

8. Sure hope this helps us win Ohio!

Ohio is an absolute MUST-WIN state if we're to reach 270 electoral votes on Nov. 6.

[spooky3]

13. agree with your hope, but there are paths to victory without OH for Obama

Obviously, the path is much better WITH OH. I think we will win OH as long as there is not monkey business with suppression or with manipulation of the electronic voting machines.

Cleveland is the most liberal part of OH so it would have been shocking had the Plain Dealer NOT supported Obama.

I think counts of projected EV totals suggest that losing OH would make it next to impossible for Romney to win.

[ladym55]

21. Plain Dealer tends to endorse Republican

This is a big deal. Akron Beacon Journal (which also endorsed Obama) is the NE Ohio paper that tends (in theory) to be Democratic.

[helpisontheway]

9. Great news! Nt

[heaven05]

10. well

Last edited Tue Oct 23, 2012, 10:07 AM - Edit history (1)

today mittytwit and POTUS are neck and neck in the polls. No bounce from 2nd debate, still 47-47. The voting machine and hanging chads will be revived for this election theft

[maddiemom]

24. The neck and neck thing is puzzling to me. While I would have never voted for John McCain,

I would vote for him, even at his age over Romney, given no other choice ( and providing Sarah wasn't his running mate! Probably too much to hope for a Huntsman type). I recently called about 150 newly registered college voters (18-22). Of course, I only reached about half of them, but the majority of those were voting for President Obama. Most the rest were undecided, claiming disappointment in, but probably supporting Obama. Only a few ( maybe five or six) were clearly for Romney. Repubs had a point in trying to disenfranchise college students.

[Tribetime]

11. wahoooooo..thanks WI DEM nt

[GallopingGhost]

12. Let's hope lots of Ohioans

see and read the endorsement.

[liberal N proud]

14. That is a relief

This is big in the Cleveland area, I was afraid they would bend to the call from the right wing and go with the idiot.

[olegramps]

15. The Denver Post, hardly a Liberal paper, indorsed Obama.

We lost the Rocky Mountain News which leaned pro-Dem. The Denver Post's editorlial page is saturated with right wing crapola with a couple of liberals thrown in. You would think that when a paper such as the Denver Post is forced to endorse President Obama because the Repulican candidate is so lame, that some of these right-wing fanatics would come to their senses. I won't hold my breath.

[ailsagirl]

17. kick

[HughBeaumont]

18. . . . and the PD isn't exactly even a moderate paper.

President Obama is the only consistent Democrat they've endorsed besides Sherrod Brown. It's usually all Repubs, all the time.

[GetTheRightVote]

19. This is great...

I hope more papers final their lead,

[GetTheRightVote]

20. This is great news...