Swing-state papers offer endorsements, albeit unenthusiastically
OAKMONT, PA - OCTOBER 17: Election cookies of U.S. President Barack Obama and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney are displayed at the Oakmont Bakery on October 17, 2012 in Oakmont, Pennsylvania. The images of the candidates are printed on icing paper with food coloring. Currently, Romney is ahead in the tally over Obama, 350 cookies purchased to 331. The bakery began the race three weeks ago and plans to maintain the cookie poll until Election Day. (Photo by Jeff Swensen/Getty Images) / Jeff Swensen
(CBS News) With just a little over two weeks left until Election Day, editorial boards at newspapers in critical background states are unleashing their endorsements in the presidential contest.
While consensus among the different editorial boards is lacking, enthusiasm for both candidates is also missing.
In Ohio, which both campaigns are heavily contesting, two of the three editorial boards at newspapers that have backed a candidate this weekend have offered less-than-ringing support.
The Cleveland Plain Dealer editorial board highlighted President Obama's "bold decision to revive the domestic auto industry" and his passage of the Affordable Care Act, but said their endorsement "comes with less enthusiasm or optimism" than in 2008.
"Obama has changed - and it's more than gray hair," they write. "The unifier of 2008 now engages in relentless attacks on his Republican challenger, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. The big dreamer of 2008 offers little in the way of a second-term agenda. There is a world-weariness unseen four years ago." The board added that they were "sorely tempted" to back Romney, but worried about "which Romney" would be elected - the liberal of his Senate race against Senator Ted Kennedy? The moderate who served as Massachusetts governor? Or the conservative of the Republican primaries?
The Akron Beach Journal editorial board also backed President Obama, sighting his "impressive" list of accomplishments that includes the health care law and a restructured student loan program. However, they pointed to some of the shortcomings the president has demonstrated in the past four years. "The president lacks the political skills of a Ronald Reagan or Bill Clinton. Errors have been many, difficulties remain. They include a failure to address more directly the battered housing market. The drone program proceeds without the necessary oversight," the editorial board wrote.
In Florida, two editorial boards offer cautious optimism for Republican candidate.The Orlando Sentinel editorial board, which backed Mr. Obama in 2008, wrote: "Romney is not our ideal candidate for president. We've been turned off by his appeals to social conservatives and immigration extremists."
They say their decision was based on the notion that they "have little confidence that Obama would be more successful managing the economy and the budget in the next four years."
Another major Florida newspaper editorial board wrote, "A few of Romney's stands trouble us. He can be bellicose on foreign affairs. His gushing enthusiasm for oil drilling and fossil fuels is a worry in Florida, where drilling off our Gulf of Mexico beaches would be a disaster."
The Tampa Tribune editorial board, however, concludes that Romney is the better choice this time around. "Under President Barack Obama's liberal and inconsistent leadership, the country has limped along, barely a step ahead of another recession."
The Denver Post editorial board criticized both candidates, saying that neither one has offered a plan for the future. "Neither has done enough to lead us to think voters on Nov. 6 aren't, to a certain degree, being asked to make a leap of faith," the board wrote in the weekend column. They based their endorsement on the record they know, calling Mr. Obama "the best pick" because of his "record of accomplishment under trying circumstances."
Another Colorado paper editorial board said Mr. Obama "has done a reasonably good job" dealing with the recession, but that questions remain about the president's plan. "The Republican Party has offered no credible alternative," the Durango Herald editorial board concludes. "Romney has publicly demonstrated no core convictions beyond his obvious belief that he should be president. He apparently thinks that simply not being Obama is qualification enough," they wrote.
Meanwhile, some newspaper editorial boards do offer enthusiastic support. The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review editorial board bragged that they "warned of the dangers" of Mr. Obama four years ago and that they "predicted everything" from "recovery-retarding taxing and spending to a week foreign policy of deferentialism."
The conservative-leaning editorial board of the New Hampshire Union Leader said Mr. Obama's plan "is a fantasy" and "it is time to stop dreaming and stop growing again" by electing Romney. "The key difference between Mitt Romney and Barack Obama is that Romney understands that crucial economic truth; Barack Obama does not," the editorial board wrote.
At a third Ohio newspaper, the editorial board at the Columbus Dispatch backed Senator John McCain in 2008 and announced its support of Romney Sunday. "Obama has failed. That is why Mitt Romney is the preferred choice for president. Romney's adult life has been spent turning around troubled private and public institutions," the editorial board wrote.
In the liberal enclave of Asheville, North Carolina, the Asheville Citizen-Times editorial board offered strong support for the president because, "It's still hard to get a handle on many of Romney's positions."
"Slow progress is better than no progress. We feel the pillars are in place for more, and hopefully quickened, progress in the days ahead," the editorial board wrote.
Although Utah is not a swing state, it is interesting to note that the Salt Lake Tribune editorial board, from a state where Romney has tremendous support because of its conservative base and its Mormon population, threw its support behind Mr. Obama.
"Through a pair of presidential debates, Romney's domestic agenda remains bereft of detail and worthy of mistrust," the editorial board wrote. "The president has earned a second term. Romney, in whatever guise, does not deserve a first."
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http://youtu.be/a4dO4FchE0k
...The Last Republi-'con' we had in the White House
(Mitt Rob-me is just another G.W. Bush; he'll bring us right back to the same old, failed Republi-'con policies that put the nation in this mess).
VS.
President Obama... leading the country forward, from the mess that was handed to him.
=======================================
UNEMPLOYMENT
(Last Republi-'con' in the White House vs. Obama):
=======================================
...last 12 months of the last Republi-'con' President in the White House:
Feb '08 = -240,000 jobs lost
Mar '08 = -49,000 jobs lost
Apr '08 = +22,000 jobs gained
May '08 = -201,000 jobs lost
Jun '08 = -191,000 jobs lost
Jul '08 = -208,000 jobs lost
Aug '08 = -334,000 jobs lost
Sep '08 = -137,000 jobs lost
Oct '08 = -267,000 jobs lost
Nov '08 = -714,000 jobs lost
Dec '08 = -750,000 jobs lost
Jan '09 = -1,141,000 jobs lost
TOTAL = 4,210,000 jobs lost ... "4.2 MILLION" jobs lost in a 1 year time frame.
Obama's Turnaround after spending his first year fixing the mess that G.W. Bush left him:
2010 = + 1,252,000 jobs GAINED
2011 = + 1,570,000 jobs GAINED
2012 (just for the months of January to September) = + 2,184,000 jobs GAINED
TOTAL JOB GAINS SINCE OBAMA TURNED AROUND BUSH'S MESS = + 5,006,000
=======================================
U.S. MANUFACTURING JOBS
(Last Republi-'con' in the White House vs. Obama):
=======================================
"MADE IN AMERICA" U.S. manufacturing jobs (exports).
...last Republi-'con' President we had in the White House, had net losses of "MADE IN AMERICA" U.S. manufacturing jobs EVERY SINGLE YEAR, totaling to 4.6 million U.S. manufacturing jobs going overseas in 8 years.
...Under President Obama, for the first time since Bill Clinton was President, the U.S.A. has had annual NET GROWTH of U.S. manufacturing jobs equal to the following:
2010 = +109,000
2011 = +233,000
2012 (Jan-to-Sep) = +134,000 (so far in 2012)
SOURCE: http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CES3000000001?data_tool=XGtable
=======================================
HOUSING MARKET AND HOME VALUES
(Last Republi-'con' in the White House vs. Obama):
=======================================
... Under the last Republi-'con' we had in the White House, home values "collapsed".
... Since President Obama took office, the drop in home prices has stopped, and home values are back on the rise again...
CASE-SHILLER HOME PRICE INDEX...
SOURCE:
http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-case-shiller-house-prices-go-positive-2012-8
=======================================
STOCK MARKET
(Last Republi-'con' in the White House vs. Obama):
=======================================
... Under the last Republi-'con' we had in the White House, the stock market "crashed" (putting the nation in a "Great Recession").
---> The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) Index had dropped down to "8,000" (Jan 2009) from the "13,000" it was at just 9 months earlier.
... Under President Obama, today, the DJIA Index is at "13,343"...right where it was at before the crash.
SOURCE:
http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=^DJI+Interactive#symbol=^DJI;range=5y
The Akron Beach Journal editorial board also backed President Obama, sighting his "impressive" list... No NO NO
CITING his "impressive" list
President Obama: On all these issues, but particularly missile defense, this, this can be solved but it's important for him to give me space.
President Medvedev: Yeah, I understand. I understand your message about space. Space for you...
President Obama: (reaching over and putting his hand on Mr. Medvedev's knee): This is my last election. After my election I have more flexibility.
President Medvedev: I understand. I will transmit this information to Vladimir.
The Vladimir is Vladimir Putin, who just won elections in Russia this month under a cloud of suspicion, to replace Mr. Medvedev, who has been a fig leaf president for the past four years while Mr. Putin has wielded power from his post as prime minister.
Mr. Putin, who has been open and public in his disdain for both the United States and President Obama in particular, opposes American foreign policy from Syria to Asia to Latin America. He is the poster child for a new breed of authoritarian world leaders who openly want to thwart America's intentions. Most recently, Putin used hostile rhetoric toward the United States as a tool in his re-election campaign, labeling opposition leaders puppets of the CIA. That followed Russia's decision at the United Nations Security Council to veto a U.S.-backed resolution calling for Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad to step aside. People if you love your freedoms and our country please watch 2016 Obamas America
and connect the dots. No it is not bashing the President, but makes sense of some of his choices. It answers where his world view and ideology comes from. I know Bush left a large deficit. I do not excuse that. The federal debt is now almost $16 trillion. $5.3 trillion of this debt came under Obama's watch. In August the deficit reached $417 billion below the cap of the debt ceiling. We are two to three years away from what happened with the Greece debt crisis. We are hurdling toward the destruction of our great nation. Socialized health care, big govt. failing economy, bailouts, 15 percent poverty, turning our back on Israel, apologizing and sympathizing with radical muslims, covering up and lying about Benghazi. They have done nothing to halt Iran's race for nuclear weapons. The Obama administration is edging toward decisions that would further shrink the U.S. nuclear arsenal, possibly to between 1,000 and 1,100 warheads, reflecting role of nuclear weapons in an age of terror, say current and former officials. This in a day and age of terrorism. If you please watch 2016 and look up socialism and communism and look at the Presidents connection to communists and radicals you can't deny they don't have an influence. We are turning into a country I don't recognize. Please lets save our country before it's too late.
Obama's immigration stance is to give Mexico a large permanent voting block in the U.S. by giving "amnesty" to millions of illegal invaders from that country. Just in case there weren't enough people voting in America who's primary loyalty is to another country, there will instantly be millions more who will vote for Mexico's interests over America's. Americans aren't allowed to influence Mexican elections but Mexico will gladly take advantage of a Mexican voting block inside the U.S. to press for the policies it wants. You can be sure that this will mean even more immigration from Mexico and even more benefits for Mexicans at U.S. taxpayer expense. The Mexican consulates (spy nests) across America will be mobilizing to get their people to the polls to vote for Obama. Let's hope that enough Americans mobilize to vote Obama out while there still is an America to protect as opposed to just another Latin hell-hole.
Health insurance for all Americans.
WE AMERICANS CONTINUE TO LOSE OUR RIGHTS, AS OBAMA TAKES THEM AWAY
If we care about our and America's future, we must stop Obama and his well-calculated plans to please, to accommodate, and to appease America's adversaries, America's ill-wishers, and America's enemies.
In addition to weakening America, another of Obama's "special purposes" is to reduce the American people into a
"quiet, silent, and naively-compliant society"
dependent on handouts, dependent on unproductive, bureaucratic, government jobs, and dependent on govt programs, which is indeed a recipe for failure.
We Americans face losing what we and our anti-tyrannical compatriots have lived and died for: a country free from tyrannical and communistic rule.
If we care for and love America, you are strongly urged to spread this URGENT WAKE-UP MESSAGE TO ALL AMERICAN VOTERS:
Barack Hussein Obama and his wrecking crew, must be voted out of The U.S. Presidency, so he;
will no longer be empowered
will be denied US Taxpayer Dollars and resources
to serve his hidden as well as his stated foreign interests.
----------
Eh. We lost the 1st, 4th, and 6th Amendments with GWB's Patriot Act.