As of today I’ve identified 35 newspapers and magazines that have endorsed Barack Obama for president, 37 that have endorsed Mitt Romney. The Sentinel and Enterprise of Fitchburg, Massachusetts has endorsed Mitt Romney for president:
Romney knows how to run a business and a government. If elected, he would enter the White House with a level of private- and public-sector expertise unseen in modern times.
He’s got a track record of buying failing companies and turning them around. Democrats have demonized Romney for the wealth he’s amassed working in the same capitalistic system they do and for making difficult CEO decisions expected of strong, prudent leaders. Yet who among the Democrats wouldn’t take Romney on their team if his political affiliation were different?
As governor of Massachusetts (2003-07), Romney reversed a downward economic trend and wiped out a $1.5 billion budget deficit through spending cuts and fee increases. He didn’t raise taxes. He also championed investments in the state’s public schools, and the results were stunning: No. 1 national and international rankings on student achievement tests.
Romney didn’t do it alone. Even today he gives credit to the 87 percent of Democrats in the state Legislature who collaborated with a Republican administration to solve difficult problems. It was a bipartisanship that Bay Staters came to believe in and expect. The capstone was controversial — Massachusetts’ first-in-the-nation universal health care law — and it was approved because it fit the state’s unique needs to guarantee access to quality medical services for its 6.3 million citizens.
The editorial goes on to analyze Obama’s very weak case for re-election. This is a meatier editorial than most and worth reading. The Sentinel and Enterprise endorsed Obama in 2008.
By my reckoning the publications that have changed from endorsing Obama to endorsing Romney outnumbers the publications that endorsed McCain in 2008 but endorse Obama now by 11-6.
A couple of favorite bits:
There are 46.7 million Americans on food stamps today, up from 32 million in 2008. Obama’s relaxed eligibility rules have increased program spending 131 percent, from $39 billion in 2008 to $81 billion this fiscal year.
So enrollment is up not quite 50%, but costs have more than doubled. Hmm.
-and-
President Obama makes a weak case for re-election. He says his policies need four more years to kick in. This from a commander-in-chief who hasn’t passed a federal budget in three years, hasn’t submitted a comprehensive energy bill in four years, and hasn’t given voters an inkling of where America might be headed through 2016. Where’s your plan, Mr. President?
Doh! Swamped by events! The President now has a shiny new plan! Or at least a shiny new booklet. The guy produced two autobiographies about himself but hasn’t been able to come up with more than a booklet after four years in office. Tell me how it is that Romney’s the one with the lack of details again.