The Colorado Springs Gazette has endorsed Mitt Romney for president:
In a meeting with The Gazette’s editorial board on Monday, Gov. Romney laid out a plan and vision for America that is in stark contrast to the president’s. He summarized President Obama’s philosophy as “government-centered, government-intensive … which has never worked anywhere in the history of the world.â€
“I believe in encouraging more personal and economic freedom on the part of the American people, because I believe private enterprise creates jobs and builds a bright future,†Romney said.
The Gazette’s editorial board has extended multiple invitations to Obama’s campaign, hoping our president might sell us on his policies. Our invitation was entertained for months, then rejected on Monday.
Many Americans vote based on how policies affect them personally. “Am I better off than I was four years ago?†For the middle class, the answer is a resounding “no.â€
Under President Obama, deficit spending has soared as Americans have seen their incomes suffer. About 50 percent of middle-class adults have fallen backward in income for the first time since World War II. Unemployment remains above 9 percent in Colorado Springs and El Paso County, the state’s most populous county, and above 8 percent throughout the country. The economy grew at only a 1.3 percent annual rate in the last quarter.
“If I don’t have this done in three years, then there’s going to be a one-term proposition,†President Obama said in 2009.
President Obama believes in government as a means to directly improve the lives of individuals. It doesn’t work that way, because government has nothing that doesn’t emanate from the profits of private endeavors.
Though Romney believes in limited government, he rightly supports a strong military to protect freedom and prosperity. He promises to restore military jobs that may be lost in January to sequestration — a process of automatic spending cuts resulting from budgetary gridlock.
The Gazette did not make an endorsement in 2008. It’s the first daily I’ve found that either did not endorse last cycle making an endorsement this cycle or which reversed the political party of the candidate endorsed.
That the newspaper in the second city of Colorado, usually seen as a swing state, has endorsed Romney may be significant.
They had me right up until the last paragraph you cited.
You do realize that the Air Force Academy is there (perhaps better characterized as the Evangelical Military Academy that just happens to teach people to fly)? The surprise was their not endorsing McCain.
Steve
I strongly suspect that The Gazette’s editorial reads somewhat differently to its own target audience than to a more general audience. CS’s economy is largely based on the military and defense industries and a substantially larger proportion of its population is military or former military than is the case for the country as a whole (or even Colorado as a whole).
You’re right, I didn’t think about it. All politics is local.
Why would the newspaper in an Air Force town endorse a Naval Aviator?
Lots of people that one would have otherwise expected to support McCain in 2008 did not do so. I know of one person that served time in the Hanoi Hilton with McCain for several years. Typically that person gives a lot of money to Republican candidates. He gave a lot in the Presidential primary that year to one of McCain’s opponents. When the general election rolled around he didn’t give McCain one penny. (This is all public record if you know how to look up campaign contributions.)
A LOT of Republicans & conservatives sat out the 2008 campaign – McCain was just about the worst possible candidate the Republicans could have chosen. No shock that some right-leaning newspapers did too. No shock that they’re coming back into the fold this year.