Dayum

whoa.

I think I said a bit more than that and I ain't even an American. This is akin to his own brotherhood disowning him.

Here's the actual endorsement, if you'd like to read it and their reasons.

On another board I read that they also endorsed Obama back in 2008 but I suppose that's not really the point, is it?

Maybe Salt Lake City is more liberal than the rest of the state, but hell, how many people are there in the rest of the state, anyhow? A couple dozen? Okay, I see now there are a couple million. Never mind.

I saw that remark! If I remember, the poster said "No big deal" too. LMAO!

That isn't the point in this election.

Yes, the Boston Globe reports:

That being the case, I suppose it's not such a huge surprise afterall that they would again endorse the Democratic candidate.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch endorses President Obama for re-election

Gloria Shur BilchikPublished: October 8, 2012Posted in: 2012 Election, Media, Obama, PoliticsTags: Endorsing President Obama, Obama, Politics, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

In a very thoughtful, eloquent and balanced editorial published on Sunday, October 7, 2012, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch called for voters to re-elect President Obama on Nov. 6. Calling President Obama “a serious man,” the Post-Dispatch lauded his positive vision for the country and outlined his first-term achievements. Here are some excerpts:
Mr. Obama sees an America where the common good is as important as the individual good. That is the vision on which the nation was founded. It is the vision that has seen America through its darkest days and illuminated its best days. It is the vision that underlies the president’s greatest achievement, the Affordable Care Act. Twenty years from now, it will be hard to find anyone who remembers being opposed to Obamacare.
The editorial reminds readers that President Obama inherited an economy devastated by disastrous economic policies promoted by the George W. Bush administration, and that while recovery has been slower than hoped for, it would be unrealistic to expect a total turnaround in just four years.
To expect Barack Obama to have repaired, in four years, what took 30 years to undermine, is simply absurd. He might have gotten further had he not been saddled with an opposition party, funded by plutocrats, that sneers at the word compromise. But even if Mr. Obama had had Franklin Roosevelt’s majorities, the economy would still be in peril.
The endorsement does not come without some criticism, and the Post-Dispatch also lists some of the disappointments even President Obama’s staunchest supporters have felt:
Mr. Obama has not been everything we expected. In his first weeks in office, Democrats ran amok with part of his economic stimulus package. His mortgage relief program was insufficient. Together with his Treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner, the president has been too deferential to the financial industry. The president should have moved to nationalize troubled banks instead of structuring the bailout to their benefit. Regulatory agencies and the Justice Department were unable to bring financial crooks to heel.
We had hoped that Mr. Obama would staff the executive branch with the best and the brightest. There have been stars, but there have been egregious failures, too. The “Fast and Furious” operation at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms was a disgrace. The vastly expensive and unaccountable intelligence and Homeland Security agencies need stronger oversight. The now-renamed Minerals Management Service could have used some best-and-brightest inspectors before the Deepwater Horizon blowout in the Gulf of Mexico.
But even given these factors, the Post-Dispatch reminds readers that the alternative to President Obama–Mitt Romney– is a candidate whose beliefs appear to change with the wind, a person who has voiced disdain for people who are economically disadvantaged, and a politician whose policies are virtually identical to those that caused the economic downturn.
Mr. Romney apparently will say anything that will help him win an election. As a president, he might well govern as a pragmatic chief executive, or he might sell himself to the plutocrats and the crazies who have taken over his party. He is asking Americans to take a lot on faith — there’s nothing to see in his tax returns; he can cut taxes and whack away debt while trimming deductions he will not specify.
The editorial ends by describing the choice facing voters in the 2012 presidential election:
The question for voters is actually very simple. The nation has wrestled with it since its founding: Will this be government for the many or the few?
Choose the many. Choose Barack Obama.
http://www.occasionalplanet.org/2012/10 ... -election/

There are a LOT of conservative papers endorsing Obama ~ I'm gonna snag the links from Wil's Facebook page and will post them here ~

Sooz

More to come ~ Sooz

Obama for president ~ LA Times: "The nation has been well served by President Obama's steady leadership. And Mitt Romney has demonstrated clearly that he's the wrong choice."

Re-elect Obama ~ The Durango Herald: "President handled a tough situation fairly well; Romney offers no credible alternative"

Presidential endorsement: Obama's agenda gives steady hand to economic growth ~ Arizona Daily Star

Here's another ~ Sooz

Obama is best choice for president ~ Winston-Salem Journal

All of these endorsement excerpts are terrific ~ and some of these endorsement excerpts are from very surprising sources ~ the newspaper name [that I bolded below] is a "live link" in the original to the full endorsement in each paper ~ Sooz

Newspapers Across America Endorse President Obama’s Strong and Steady Leadership
October 23, 2012
By Winning Progressive

In an election as close as this year’s Presidential race (where the polls in virtually every swing state are within the margin of error), newspaper endorsements can be important. While they are unlikely to sway a supporter of one candidate or the other, a compelling newspaper endorsement can provide the type of independent validation of a candidate that is important to an undecided voter. And picking up even a small number of undecided voters can be the margin of victory, especially in a close swing state.

Over the past few weeks, a growing number of major newspapers, many located in swing states like Ohio and Florida, have endorsed President Obama’s bid for re-election. These endorsements tend to make three basic points: (1) that President Obama has offered strong, steady leadership in bringing our country out of the economic and foreign policy messes that the Bush-Cheney Administration left us with, (2) that the Obama Administration has an impressive track record of accomplishments on keeping our nation safe, improving the economy, supporting the middle class, expanding access to health insurance, promoting equality, etc., and (3) that Romney bounces between promoting a reactionary redux of the Bush-Cheney years and changing his positions so often that no one really knows what he believes. In summary, they provide a compelling case for re-electing President Obama.

Below are excerpts from a sampling of the recent newspaper endorsements of President Obama. We will provide excerpts from additional endorsements in our next post. In the meantime, please take action to help win this election by sharing these endorsements with anyone you know who is undecided, commenting on and sending letters to the editor supporting these endorsements, and volunteering with the Obama campaign to help get out the vote. And if your local newspaper has endorsed President Obama, please let us know in the comments section below.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch – Obama For President: A Second Term for a Serious Man

Four years ago, in endorsing Democrat Barack Obama for president, we noted his intellect, his temperament and equanimity under pressure. He was unproven, but we found him to be presidential, in all that word implies.

In that, we have not been disappointed. This is a serious man. And now he is a proven leader. He has earned a second term.

Winston-Salem (NC) Journal – Obama is Best Choice for President

Americans have a clear choice between two presidential candidates with starkly different ideas for spurring the economy, providing for the health of our people, defending our interests abroad, educating our children and protecting our environment. We believe that President Barack Obama’s progress on these issues merits him a second term in the White House.

Four years ago on this page, we endorsed Republican U.S. Sen. John McCain of Arizona over Obama. We wrote that we were impressed with Obama, but McCain would “bring the Iraq war to a successful conclusion, work to end American dependence on foreign oil, reduce America’s output of climate-changing gases and begin the rebuilding of our economy.”

The Democratic president has done all those things and more. He is calm under pressure and courageous in standing up for the rights of all Americans, including the poor, veterans, the elderly, women, gays and immigrants. In contrast, we’ve sometimes found it hard in the last few weeks to tell just what Obama’s challenger, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, really stands for.

Lincoln (NE) Journal-Star – Obama Best for Middle Class

Months before the presidential election in 2008, the world’s financial system ground to a standstill — thanks to a system so devoid of regulations and enforcement that banks and financiers no longer trusted each other.

That’s the mess Barack Obama stepped into when he took office in 2008. Obama engineered a turnaround. In the hands of a president less pragmatic, less cool under pressure, it might not have happened.

After his first four years, Obama is a proven leader.

. . . . .

Republican nominee Mitt Romney at times makes us optimistic that he would do a creditable job as president. But he changes positions on issues so frequently we’re uncertain what he actually would do in office.

Obama has been tested and found equal to the task of being president. We think the country is in better shape than it was four years ago, and we think it will be in even better shape if he wins another term in office.

Cleveland Plain Dealer – On the Basis of Sound Leadership, Re-Elect Obama

Obama has shown that he favors engagement over bluster, and practical solutions over easy bromides. That’s what the country needs.

Consider a defining moment early in Obama’s first term — one with special resonance in Ohio: The outgoing Bush administration had used TARP funds to throw a lifeline to General Motors and Chrysler, but the two automakers were still at death’s door. They wanted more cash and offered vague promises to change their ways. Public opinion opposed another bailout. Romney urged the companies to file for traditional bankruptcy — at a time when private-sector credit was frozen even for healthy firms.

Obama told the companies to restructure using the Bankruptcy Court and set conditions for government financing: GM’s chairman had to go. Excess plants and dealerships had to close. Chrysler had to be bought out by Fiat. Contracts had to be renegotiated.

It was unpopular but gutsy. And it worked. Ohioans today are making cars in Lordstown and Toledo. They’re making parts and steel for Ford, Honda and other automakers. They’re back on the job.

That’s leadership that deserves a chance to finish the job. Re-elect President Obama.

Tampa Bay Times – Obama For President

Four years ago, Barack Obama offered an inspiring message of hope and change to an uneasy nation bogged down in two wars and facing economic collapse. The rosy idealism quickly gave way to the harsh realities of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. The recovery has proven more difficult than anyone imagined. But conditions would be far worse without the president’s steady leadership. This is not the time to reverse course and return to the failed policies of the past. Without hesitation, the Tampa Bay Times recommends Barack Obama for re-election as president.

. . . . . .

Obama has capably steered the nation through an incredibly difficult period at home and abroad, often with little help from Congress. The next four years will not be easy for whoever occupies the Oval Office, but Obama has been tested by harsh circumstance and proven himself worthy of a second term.

Akron (OH) Beacon Journal – Obama For President

What matters are his real accomplishments and the direction he proposes for the years ahead.

On both those counts, he has succeeded far more than his critics contend. We recommend the re-election of Barack Obama on Nov. 6.

Asheville (NC) Citizen-Times – Allow Obama to Build on Progress

President Obama entered office with two wars raging and the economy in free fall. The U.S. auto industry was collapsing, and Osama bin Laden remained at large. The solutions to the first two issues were far from perfect, but show progress. The solutions to the latter two we’d say are a success.

Slow progress is better than no progress. We feel the pillars are in place for more, and hopefully quickened, progress in the days ahead.

We feel the best way to continue that progress to re-elect President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden on Nov. 6.

Santa Fe New Mexican – For President, Barack Obama

And it is that word — progress — that we urge voters to keep in mind when casting their ballots. Voters are not simply choosing between two men — President Barack Obama and Gov. Mitt Romney — they are selecting two philosophies of governing and of life.

In the world of Barack Obama, raised by a single mother and grandparents, propelled to the top through his own hard work, intelligence and drive, we all do better when we come together. He has never forgotten the struggles of his youth, understanding better than most the necessity of individual initiative. To Obama, government is not the enemy. It is not dispenser of all wisdom or wealth, either. Government is the safety net that catches the weak, the sick, the old and the very poor. It is also our collective will in action — building, defending and securing our nation. Obama will not privatize Social Security or reduce Medicare to a voucher system that costs too much while not guaranteeing treatment. He understands that Medicaid, which underwrites medical care for the very poor, must be protected from budget slashers who think nothing of leaving sick people at the emergency room door while asking for more tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires.

Mitt Romney’s world is very different, one of privilege and wealth, where in his view, 47 percent of all citizens are takers who won’t assume responsibility for their lives. He had the good fortune to be born in a two-parent home, and should be credited for taking his comfortable start and building a fortune with it. He is a model of a citizen, a good father, husband and church member, contributing to his greater community with both his time and treasure. However, his vision for the United States — with almost half the population moochers — will not lift the least of us up. Instead, it will continue to divide the country along class lines, further splitting us between the haves-a-lot and everyone else.

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/10/23/newspapers-across-america-endorse-president-obamas-strong-and-steady-leadership/

All of these endorsement excerpts are terrific ~ and some of these endorsement excerpts are from very surprising sources ~ the newspaper name [that I bolded below] is a "live link" in the original to the full endorsement in each paper ~ Sooz

More Newspapers Endorse President Obama’s Re-Election
October 26, 2012
By Winning Progressive

In a close election such as this one, newspaper endorsements can provide the type of independent validation of a candidate that is important to an undecided voter. Over the past few weeks, a growing number of major newspapers have provided such independent validation of President Obama’s bid for re-election.

These endorsements tend to make three basic points: (1) that President Obama has offered strong, steady leadership in bringing our country out of the economic and foreign policy messes that the Bush-Cheney Administration left us with, (2) that the Obama Administration has an impressive track record of accomplishments on keeping our nation safe, improving the economy, supporting the middle class, expanding access to health insurance, promoting equality, etc., and (3) that Romney bounces between promoting a reactionary redux of the Bush-Cheney years and changing his positions so often that no one really knows what he believes. In summary, they provide a compelling case for re-electing President Obama.

In a previous post, we highlighted endorsements of President Obama from a number of newspapers. Below are excerpts from more endorsements, including from Utah’s largest newspaper, and papers in states as varied as Pennsylvania, California, West Virginia, Texas, and Michigan.

Please take action to help win this election by sharing these endorsements with anyone you know who is undecided, commenting on and sending letters to the editor supporting these endorsements, and volunteering with the Obama campaign to help get out the vote. And if your local newspaper has endorsed President Obama, please let us know in the comments section below.

Salt Lake City Tribune – Tribune Endorsement: Too Many Mitts – Obama Has Earned Another Term

In considering which candidate to endorse, The Salt Lake Tribune editorial board had hoped that Romney would exhibit the same talents for organization, pragmatic problem solving and inspired leadership that he displayed here more than a decade ago. Instead, we have watched him morph into a friend of the far right, then tack toward the center with breathtaking aplomb. Through a pair of presidential debates, Romney’s domestic agenda remains bereft of detail and worthy of mistrust.

Therefore, our endorsement must go to the incumbent, a competent leader who, against tough odds, has guided the country through catastrophe and set a course that, while rocky, is pointing toward a brighter day. The president has earned a second term. Romney, in whatever guise, does not deserve a first.

Los Angeles Times – Obama For President

[Obama] has confronted two inherited wars and the deepest recession since the Great Depression. He brought America’s misguided adventure in Iraq to an end and arrested the economic downturn (though he did not fully reverse it) with the 2009 fiscal stimulus and a high-risk strategy to save the U.S. automobile industry. He secured passage of a historic healthcare reform law — the most important social legislation since Medicare.

Just as important, Obama brought a certain levelheadedness to the White House that had been in short supply during the previous eight years. While his opponents assailed him as a socialist and a Muslim and repeatedly challenged the location of his birthplace in an effort to call into question his legitimacy as president, he showed himself to be an adult, less an ideologue than a pragmatist, more cautious than cocky. Despite Republicans‘ persistent obstructionism, he pushed for — and enacted — stronger safeguards against another Wall Street meltdown and abusive financial industry practices. He cut the cost of student loans, persuaded auto manufacturers to take an almost unimaginable leap in fuel efficiency by 2025 and offered a temporary reprieve from deportation to young immigrants brought into the country illegally by their parents. He ended the morally bankrupt “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that had institutionalized discrimination against gays in the military.

The nation has been well served by President Obama’s steady leadership. He deserves a second term.

San Antonio Express-News – Obama Deserves a Second Term

We believe President Obama has demonstrated a better grasp of the essential issues and offers a better vision for the United States. Voters should give him a second term in the White House.

. . . . .

No candidate has all the right policies — that includes Barack Obama. But having weathered the challenges of the last four years, we believe he is in a better position to guide the nation over the next four years — and has earned from voters the privilege to do so.

San Francisco Examiner – Barack Obama for President

But President Obama has moved the needle on many important topics. His aggressive support of stimulus spending helped the nation avoid another depression. He made it clear that our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan would not continue as nation-building missions that run counter to the wishes of people in those countries. His support for the alternative energy sector was wise, despite the occasional failures that inevitably accompany any such investment effort.

His support for Middle East democracies has allowed voters in countries there to select new leaders without heavy pressure from the United States. And his groundbreaking, though tepid, support for same-sex marriage is the farthest a sitting president has gone to recognize the rights of gays and lesbians, which is long overdue on the national stage. Finally, Obama’s health care reform was a giant step forward in a country in which far too many people lack access to suitable medical care — although far from the universal health care this country needs.

Philadelphia Inquirer – Obama Will Do A Better Job

America doesn’t need an Etch A Sketch president whose positions change with the type of audience he’s speaking to. It also doesn’t need a president who makes foreign-policy speeches suggesting the nation needs to become entangled in even more foreign disputes. Families are tired of seeing their sons and daughters in the armed forces venture into harm’s way for causes that no longer seem as important, especially with the nation continuing to struggle to end an economic crisis. If anything, polls show, most Americans think the troops in Afghanistan and elsewhere can’t come home soon enough.

In that regard, Obama deserves more than the grudging credit Republicans are giving him for being the commander in chief who finally got Osama bin Laden. America is safer as a result of that. America will be healthier, with more people insured, as a result of Obamacare. More Americans are employed, although not nearly enough, because of Obama’s saving the auto industry and promoting policies that are creating jobs. What Obama has already been able to accomplish in the face of unrelenting partisan opposition suggests he could have a remarkably successful presidency if given a second term

BARACK OBAMA is the better candidate in the presidential race. A vote for him is an investment in a strong future, which is why The Inquirer endorses his reelection.

Muskegon (MI) Chronicle – The Country Needs Barack Obama

The Obama we are endorsing is the man who oversaw and expanded the bailout of the auto industry that was initiated in the final weeks of the George W. Bush administration. We are endorsing the Obama who knew that bailing out an industry that provided more than 2 million industrial and related jobs and 3.6 percent of our gross national product was the right thing to do.

We are endorsing the man who stood up to naysayers in Congress, and Mitt Romney who placed his opinion, “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt,” in the national spotlight, because what was on the line was more than a financial crisis, it was a way of life in Michigan that would have been wiped out, sending shock waves into every other industry and business and into government services such as police, fire and education. There’s no way Michigan or the other industrial states would be in the slow, but steady recovery they are experiencing today if GM and Chrysler had been forced to liquidate …

The American people must demand leadership from the president on down. It must demand that elected officials reach out to each other and create solutions to our problems that will help all Americans, not just the 1 percent or the 47 percent.

Hoping for change is not enough. Flip-flopping on issues in an effort to get elected is not enough. Following the tenets of political parties is not enough.

Action is what we need. Now.

Washington Post – Four More Years for President Obama

By contrast, the president understands the urgency of the problems as well as anyone in the country and is committed to solving them in a balanced way. In a second term, working with an opposition that we hope would be chastened by the failure of its scorched-earth campaign against him, he is far more likely than his opponent to succeed. That makes Mr. Obama by far the superior choice.

Sacramento Bee – Barack Obama For President

Voters often say they want their elected leaders to keep their promises and, at crucial moments, show real political backbone. President Barack Obama deserves a second term largely because he has delivered on both of these fronts.

. . . .

While some critics on the left say he should have gone further, by breaking up banks and launching an ambitious New Deal-style jobs program, it should be remembered that even Obama’s modest “stimulus” package was fought tooth and nail by Republicans in Congress. As has been well documented, the Republican strategy was to block all of the president’s efforts at economic recovery, even if it kept unemployment high for an extended period. As a coldblooded political strategy, it has worked, and millions of Americans have paid the price.

Charleston (WV) Gazette – Obama: For President

We think Obama is a brilliant statesman who has uplifted America after the debacle of the Bush-Cheney epoch.

. . . .

Aside from the economy, Obama has brought major advances to America. Some of them:

• He won a huge stride toward universal health insurance for all. His Affordable Care Act will cover 30 million more Americans who had no protection against disease or accident.

• He ended the Bush-Cheney bungle in Iraq — a needless war started on untrue claims, costing more than 4,000 young American lives and costing U.S. taxpayers $1 trillion — and now Obama is winding down the second Bush-Cheney war in Afghanistan.

• He advanced human rights by ending the military’s ban on gays and supporting equality for the outcast minority.

• He has decimated the al-Qaida terror network and killed its worldwide leader.

• He extended fairness to Hispanics by halting deportation of young Latinos who were smuggled into the United States as tots.

• He provided air cover so the “Arab spring” popular uprising in Libya could topple ruthless dictator Moammar Gadhafi.

. . .

We endorse the Obama-Biden ticket to keep the nation moving toward these goals.

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/10/26/more-newspapers-endorse-president-obamas-re-election/

WOOO HOOO! ~ the Trib is Chicago's "conservative" paper, the Sun-Times is Chicago's "liberal" paper ~ and I was very curious about what the Trib would do ~ I'm going in search of the full endorsement ~ bolding/emphasis below is mine ~ Sooz

TPMLIVEWIRE
Chicago Tribune, Usually GOP, Endorses Obama Again
Eric Kleefeld - 5:43 PM EDT, Friday October 26, 2012

The Chicago Tribune on Friday endorsed President Obama for re-election — marking only the second time ever that the Republican-leaning paper endorsed the Democratic candidate for president, following their previous backing of him in 2008.

The paper praised Obama for guiding the country through the 2008 financial crisis:


While acknowledging that the paper's own editorial principles would seem to be closer to Romney, the Tribune nevertheless hammered him on his own many policy shifts:


http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/chicago-tribune-usually-gop-endorses-obama-again