The Herald of Everett, Washington has endorsed Barack Obama for president:
The Republican nominee, former Gov. Mitt Romney, is enjoying a bump in the polls after an impressive debate performance earlier this month. Romney’s political vision, including preserving the Bush tax cuts on the wealthy, rolling back Obamacare, advocating a troubling redo of Medicare, and opening up the West to more resource exploitation, is not consonant with what America needs in 2012. His shape-shifting style — Romney didn’t always disparage global warming and national healthcare — also makes him a risky, uncertain bet.
Over the next four years, President Obama must concentrate on spurring job growth and invigorating the economy. The latest unemployment figures, finally dipping below 8 percent, are promising but modest. The president’s tax package, including a middle-class tax cut that, unlike his opponent, doesn’t regard a $200,000 salary as middle income, is one avenue. On foreign and military policy, Obama will need to finesse force reductions that don’t compromise our capacity to respond and preempt international terrorism. The president might also build on his 2009 executive order to end the use of torture by keeping his campaign promise to shutter Guantanamo Bay.
The Herald made no endorsement in 2008.
