More Obama Endorsements: Sacramento Bee, Katie Couric, Malaysian Star, Houston Chronicle, Detroit, Waco Tx (sort of)

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Sacramento Bee Editorial: Obama: A vote for the nation's future
IN UNCERTAIN TIMES, AMERICA MUST LOOK AHEAD, NOT BACK AT FAILED LEADERSHIP
Published: Sunday, Oct. 12, 2008 | Page 6E
 
For voters pondering the presidential election, there is one key question: Is John McCain or Barack Obama better suited to lead this country in a time of great uncertainty?

The terms of the question help reveal the answer. In this election,
Americans are picking a future, not a past. That makes Barack Obama the better choice for president of the United States.

By electing Obama, voters will make a clear break from the policies of the past eight years.

They will signal their desire for a government committed to helping citizens
who need help, not those best able to fend for themselves.

They will show they are fed up with an era of unbridled greed and endless deficit spending.

They will opt for a government more respectful of the rights of human
beings, whether those human beings are alleged enemy combatants held at Guantánamo or U.S. citizens talking on their home telephones.

They will begin to restore America's relations with its allies and its
standing in the community of nations. And in doing these all things, they will say they are looking ahead, not back.

If there were ever a time when America needed to look ahead, this is it. The nation's economy and the world's have been weakened, with no end in sight. Hundreds of thousands of Americans have lost their homes, and many hundreds of thousands more may yet suffer the same fate. The frugal have seen their savings and their prospects for secure retirements diminished.

Washington's coffers are beyond empty. State and local governments across the country are struggling to maintain crucial services.

In Iraq and Afghanistan, the nation is engaged in open-ended conflicts that have drained our treasury, sapped our military strength and cost the lives of more than 5,000 American servicemen and -women. New challenges confront us from old adversaries and emerging powers. Relations with longtime allies are strained.

These problems are daunting, but they are not insurmountable. To lead the way out of this mess, the next president must be capable of acting boldly and wisely, creatively and thoughtfully. Perhaps most important, he must be able to instill a unified sense of purpose in the nation's citizens. Barack Obama is the candidate more likely to bring those qualities to the presidency.

While his career in public service has been relatively brief, he has shown a resolute sense of purpose. His campaign for the presidency has demonstrated his even temperament, his discipline and his ability to create coalitions. His life story is uniquely American and uniquely compelling.

He has shown that he is comfortable surrounding himself with people ""
notably his choice for vice president, Joe Biden "" who can help compensate for his lack of broad experience. Most important, he has demonstrated an ability to inspire--an ability that will be essential as the next president works to restore confidence here and abroad.

John McCain, too, has a compelling life story. His long record of public
service, both in the military and in the Congress, is exemplary and
inspiring. He is a man of principle, as shown by his opposition to the use
of torture. No one can doubt his courage or his patriotism.

But for all its admirable qualities, McCain's record also is dotted with
instances of impulsive actions and dubious judgments. The most recent is his choice of a stunningly unqualified running mate.

McCain is also irrevocably tied to many of the failed policies of the
outgoing administration. His prescription for curing many of the nation's
problems, from the economy to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, is to order up more of the same policies that have brought us to the current situation. Perhaps that is why his campaign has produced no evidence that he can inspire Americans to the sort of sacrifice and unity that will be needed to meet the challenges of the future.

No one can say with certainty what shape those challenges may take in the next four years. What is certain is that the next president will need to bring many skills and ideas to bear on those challenges.

By electing Barack Obama to the nation's highest office, voters can show that they recognize the seriousness of the present situation and their readiness to tackle whatever the future may bring.

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Couric uses Chigago Tribune Endorsement
"The Chicago Tribune did something today it had never done before -- it had not endorsed a Democrat for President, not even Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson in his two runs,"- CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric touted Friday night before heralding the endorsement of the candidate from the paper's circulation area: "But today, the Trib endorsed Illinois Senator Barack Obama. It said he's better suited than John McCain to restore a quote, 'common sense of national purpose.'"-

The endorsement editorial posted Friday afternoon, but presumably to appear in Sunday's newspaper, acknowledged the paper's admiration for the hometown Senator is nothing new: "On Dec. 6, 2006, this page encouraged Obama to join the presidential campaign. We wrote that he would celebrate our common values instead of exaggerate our differences. We said he would raise the tone of the campaign. We said his intellectual depth would sharpen the policy debate. In the ensuing 22 months he has done just that."-

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from the Malaysian Star, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia:

In an outbreak of class warfare, Republican John McCain Saturday likened Democrat Barack Obama to European socialists who advocate redistributing wealth as he desperately tried to reverse his declining poll numbers.

With just over two weeks remaining to Election Day, the campaign heated up as Obama countered by accusing his rival of being "out of touch'' with the struggles of middle-class Americans who need "a break.''

The presidential candidates swapped sharply worded charges over tax cuts, each accusing the other of shortchanging middle-income Americans at a time of economic hardship for millions.

McCain has become increasingly aggressive in debates, personal appearances and _ in the past few days _ automated phone calls as the polls showed him falling behind nationally as well as in several key battleground states. Obama attacks his rival heartily, yet his rhetoric is backed by a late-campaign television advertising blitz that McCain has so far proven unable to match.

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HOUSTON CHRONICLE: The Chronicle endorses Barack Obama for president and Joe Biden for vice president of the United States
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle
Oct. 18, 2008, 9:21AM
 
The Chronicle endorses Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., for president of the United States.

Rarely in our country's history has the electorate gone to the polls to choose a new president in such challenging times with more at stake for the nation.

The economy is tottering under the strains of a global financial crisis unleashed by the unregulated excesses of U.S. lending institutions. American soldiers continue to fight and die in two separate conflicts that remain open-ended.

At home affordable health care is unavailable to millions of citizens while measures to achieve energy independence and combat global warming sit on the legislative back burner. Fear pervades so many households under the threat of unemployment and mortgage foreclosures.

One must go back to the Great Depression, and the reshaping of American domestic policy to vanquish it, to find a comparable era when the demands for change were so urgent.

The incoming administration must immediately focus and engage on so many fronts. The tasks at hand will require stamina, creativity and leadership abilities to replace partisan gridlock with a national consensus on what is best for the American people. The new leadership team must have the intellect and temperament to tackle complex issues with equally sophisticated solutions. The current go-it-alone mentality in the White House on foreign policy must give way to an effort to work in concert with our allies while engaging our enemies at the negotiating table as well as on the battlefield.

After carefully observing the Democratic and Republican nominees in drawn-out primary struggles as well as in the general campaign, including three debates, the Chronicle strongly believes that the ticket of Sens. Barack Obama and Joe Biden offers the best choice to lead the United States on a new course into the second decade of the 21st century.

Obama appears to possess the tools to confront our myriad and daunting problems. He's thoughtful and analytical. He has met his opponents' attacks with calm and reasoned responses. Viewers of the debates saw a poised, well-prepared plausible president with well-articulated positions on the bread-and-butter issues that poll after poll indicate are the true concerns of voters. While Arizona Sen. John McCain and his running mate Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin have struck an increasingly personal and negative tone in their speeches, Obama has continued to talk about issues of substance.

It is true that Obama has served less than a term in the U.S. Senate and that his previous elective experience is confined to the Illinois Legislature. However, during that public service and his previous role as a community organizer on the streets of Chicago, he has developed an appreciation and understanding of the real-life concerns of middle- and low-income Americans.

On the Iraq war, Obama was an early voice of opposition to the initial invasion and his plan for a phased withdrawal of combat forces has been embraced by American and Iraqi policymakers. His partner on the ticket, Biden, is one of the leading foreign policy experts in Congress. They pledge to rebuild America's diminished standing in the world and restore our reputation as the leading defender of democracy and human rights.

Obama's health care plan mandates health insurance for all American children, an issue of vital importance to Harris County and Houston, which has the highest rate of uninsured youngsters in the nation. By contrast, the proposal by McCain to offer a tax credit to Americans to purchase insurance while taxing health benefits for the first time will further discourage small business owners from providing employee health insurance.

One weakness Obama has shown is a tendency to demonize the energy industry, which will be an indispensable ally in developing alternative fuel sources in the future. He would do well to rethink some of his positions and apply his consensus-building skills to an essential bulwark of the Texas economy. On another issue of vital importance to the Houston area, Obama supports the U.S. space program and has wisely backed off an earlier proposal to delay NASA's moon and Mars missions to save money.

Editor's note: In endorsing Barack Obama for the 2008 election, the Chronicle, for just the second time since 1960, is endorsing a Democrat for president. In that light, we thought readers might be interested in looking back at excerpts taken from endorsements over those years.

2004: Kerry vs. Bush
FOR GEORGE W. BUSH: ... Despite the Chronicle editorial board's disagreements with some of the president's policies, both foreign and domestic, the Chronicle believes today's criteria, combined with Bush's long record as chief executive of Texas and the United States, again recommend President Bush to lead the nation. ...

... . In the days and weeks following Sept. 11, 2001, Bush displayed the courage, resolve and leadership that the nation will require during the next four years. ...

The Chronicle implores Bush to use a second term, if voters grant him one, to regain the bipartisan spirit on which he based his earlier success in Texas. ...

2000: Gore vs. Bush
FOR GEORGE W. BUSH: ... The Houston Chronicle believes the Republican candidate, Texas Gov. George W. Bush, is the best choice, and the Chronicle is proud to endorse his candidacy.

... Gov. Bush would give the military the money it needs to correct those problems and prepare U.S. troops to meet any contingency with minimum risk. ...

The nation is fortunate to have mounting surpluses in the federal budget. Bush proposes a reasonable allocation of those resources to Social Security and Medicare reform, prescrip-tion drug benefits for the elderly, military preparedness and aid to public education, particularly the teaching of reading. ...

As the governor of Texas, Bush has demonstrated beyond any doubt that he can work with legislators of both parties to advance the public interest.

1996: Clinton vs. Dole
FOR BOB DOLE: With regard to presidential politics, character does count.

... It's not personal. It's the most fundamental of political questions. It really doesmatter. ...

As Dole has pointed out, the trust issue cuts both ways. It's "not merely whether the people trust the president, but whether the president trusts the people ... He [Clinton] has confirmed that he is content to let Washington spend our earnings for us, make our decisions for us ... "

By contrast, Bob Dole, who speaks of "right conduct, every day, at every level, in all facets of life," is a rather easy choice. ...

1992: Clinton vs. Bush
FOR GEORGE H.W. BUSH: George Bush has not been a perfect president. But he has been a good president, much better than the opinion polls reflect.

Although we are uncomfortable with some aspects of his first term, when it comes to choosing the best candidate to occupy the White House for the next four years, we have no hesitation in again recommending George Bush--a man of proven presidential ability. ...

Be that as it may, President Bush's international expertise is obviously being ignored by many Americans who appear dissatisfied with his performance in dealing with the nation's economic problems. ...

1988: Dukakis vs. Bush
FOR GEORGE H.W. BUSH: ... The nation is peaceful and prosperous "" and it has problems. Vice President Bush, in our opinion, is far better equipped by experience, temperament and inclination to retain the peace and prosperity and to struggle with the problems.

The vice president is a political pro. He has been there for more than two decades, seen it all, done it all. He knows how Washington works and how to work with Washington. The nation's agenda for the next four years is how to retain what has been achieved in the last eight years and build on it. ...

There is nothing necessarily charismatic nor chic about George Bush. He is steady, reliable and firm "" proven so in hot wars, cold wars and political wars. The Oval Office would be in good hands. ...

1984: Mondale vs. Reagan
FOR RONALD REAGAN: ... President Reagan should be re-elected for at least six very good reasons:

1. President Reagan has rebuilt the defenses of this nation. ...

2. President Reagan has restored the will of this nation. ...

3. President Reagan has set this nation on the path to economic strength. ...

4. President Reagan is against any tax increase and is for hold-ing down the federal budget. ...

5. President Reagan initiated the process that put Social Security on a sound basis for years to come. ...

6. ... The intangible factor could be called confidence.

1980: Carter vs. Reagan
FOR RONALD REAGAN: ... Why Reagan?

Because this nation must undo the great damage Jimmy Carter has done in four years of weakness and vacillation. Because this nation must have a leader of Reagan's principles to guide it away from economic disaster, restore its image, build its national defense, ensure peace, halt enslavement by big government, reduce our tax burden and make us proud once more to be Americans.

1976: Carter vs. Ford
FOR GERALD R. FORD: ... Gerald Ford is a clean and decent man. Because the public recognizes this, he has been able to do an outstanding job in restoring public trust in the presidency. ...

We know who Gerald Ford is and what he will do. We don't know about his opponent.

1972: McGovern vs. Nixon
FOR RICHARD M. NIXON: ... On Tuesday, Nov. 7, the voters will take the fate of this nation into the voting booth with them. The issues and the questions at that moment are reduced to a single point: Who do you trust?

We believe President Nixon has demonstrated his ability to perform. We also believe his philosophies are in tune with the needs and wishes of the great majority of the American people. ...

1968: Humphrey vs. Nixon
FOR RICHARD M. NIXON: ... The overriding issue in this election, it seems to us, is this: Which candidate has the best chance of restoring peace, economic stability, the unity of spirit and the confidence this country so desperately needs?

That man, we believe, is Richard Nixon. ...

The nation wants peace, and Nixon has made this the first priority of his administration. ...

This is no year for protest. This is a time for a new dedication to our traditional ideals and a new determination to reunite our people. ...

1964: Johnson vs. Goldwater
FOR LYNDON B. JOHNSON: ... President Lyndon Baines Johnson is a prudent, practical man. ...

Then he chose as a candidate for vice president the strongest and ablest available Democrat, Sen. Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota, so that the nation need not fear if "" as President Johnson himself said on Wednesday--"something happens to the president."

1960: Kennedy vs. Nixon
FOR RICHARD M. NIXON: ... We believe that Nixon's stand on limitation of federal powers, encouragement of individual initiative as contrasted with increased federal interference in the economy, and his emphasis on a sound dollar and a balanced budget add up to the better way for Americans.

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DETROIT FREE PRESS:

A chief executive's ability to be steady yet decisive, and thoughtful when bravado might be enticing, can be the difference between success and disaster in the Oval Office. It's more important than experience, which can be mistakenly equated with wisdom.

So the choice Americans face in the Nov. 4 presidential election is a clear one: between the relatively inexperienced Democratic senator from Illinois, Barack Obama, who has shown a knack for developing well-reasoned solutions to the nation's many critical problems, and John McCain, the longtime Republican senator from Arizona, a genuine American war herowith a creditable streak of political independence, who has shown himself to be erratic, impulsive and bullheaded as a political leader.

At a time when America clearly needs some changes, Obama is not only proposing better ones but is better suited to the job of getting them done. The Free Press endorses Democrat Bacak Obama for president.

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WACO TEXAS TRIBUNE:

Sunday, October 19, 2008

The essence of having an opinion page is encouraging citizens to participate in our democratic process. So, too, with editorials.

Over more than two centuries, this country has matured into a model republic because of the collective wisdom of our citizenry. Newspaper opinion pages, with their sounding board function, have helped immeasurably with that process.

In no event do voices resonate more greatly "" and the need for collective wisdom run greater "" than in election of our country's president.

Traditionally, as with other offices, the Trib editorial board has evaluated the candidates for this great office and made a recommendation. So far this century we've recommended both a Republican and a Democratic candidate for president.

When making these decisions, we opt out of the word "endorsement," instead using "recommendation." It's one thing to recommend a candidate as more suitable than the other. It's another to endorse a candidate as one would sneakers or a coffee creamer.

For this election, voter interest has not been higher in a generation or more. Citizens are engaged and we have two strong choices offering clearly divergent paths for our nation.

Yet the backdrop for this momentous election reflects a country that is more bitterly divided and more distrustful of government "" and citizens distrustful of each other "" than at any time in recent memory.

 While applauding the upsurge in voter engagement, we lament what has become a poisonous environment.

So, after long, even painful, deliberation, we have decided to side with neither Barack Obama nor John McCain.

But we do have something important to recommend.

We recommend believing that our democratic process--however turbulent, however flawed--will reflect a collective wisdom of the electorate.

The notion we seek to inject into the community discussion is this: Whoever wins, our country must unite behind the next leader because our challenges are too great for the rancor that now paralyzes us.

That truth is that we as a country are engaged in a civil war.

Without the civility that reflects shared concerns and governance, the bloodlust of divide-and-conquer ideologies can be just as dangerous, just as threatening to our democracy, as an armed conflict.

The message that we want to deliver in our non-endorsement this year is that we must get beyond the reflex to attack those fellow citizens with whom we disagree.

If recent political trends hold true, on the day after our election, we can count on roughly half of our citizens to either actively or passively undermine whoever the eventual winner of this contest will be.

Instead of unifying behind our leadership and behind the concept that democracy is strengthened by the collective wisdom of all, our tendency as a nation is to destroy opposing viewpoints and destroy those who hold such viewpoints.

If they have demonstrated anything, both Sens. McCain and Obama have demonstrated that they are patriots who have a deep love of our country. To suggest otherwise is to feed into the poison.

We must acknowledge the sincere belief of McCain supporters that his long, even heroic service to this country demonstrates the unquestionable commitment of a man who would work tirelessly on behalf of this country and its citizens.

We must also acknowledge the historic, even epic nature of the Obama campaign. That a black man would be contending for this office a scant five generations after the Emancipation Proclamation attests to the character of this nation.

But we would be remiss if we did not observe that the political arena in which these two men are battling is showing signs of collapse.

The forces being exerted on this arena, the forces that threaten this collapse, are the forces of political acrimony. They are forces of division.

As recently as 2001, our country demonstrated its strength, its ability to unite after the September terrorist attacks. But just a few weeks ago, in the face of a grave economic crisis, our country witnessed the temporary paralysis of government because of partisan rancor before a solution was ultimately forged.

This intolerance of one another is our country's gravest threat.

Unlike brazen attacks by enemies, unlike the measurable plunges of our economy, the threats posed by our internal divisions most assuredly erode basic tenets of our democracy.

And with it, we erode our ability to deal with the major challenges of our time.

Authors Website: https://www.facebook.com/groups/592985284186083/

Authors Bio:

Early in the 2016 Primary campaign, I started a Facebook group: Bernie Sanders: Advice and Strategies to Help Him Win! As the primary season advanced, we shifted the focus to advancing Bernie's legislation in the Senate, particularly the most critical one, to protect Oak Flat, sacred to the San Carlos Apaches, in the Tonto National Forest, from John McCain's efforts to privatize this national forest and turn it over to Rio Tinto Mining, an Australian mining company whose record by comparison makes Monsanto look like altar boys, to be developed as North America's largest copper mine. This is monstrous and despicable, and yet only Bernie's Save Oak Flat Act (S2242) stands in the way of this diabolical plan.

We added "2020" to the title.


I am an art gallery owner in Santa Fe since 1980 selling Native American painting and NM landscapes, specializing in modern Native Ledger Art.


I have always been intensely involved in politics, going back to the mid's 1970's, being a volunteer lobbyist in the US Senate for the Secretary General of the United Nations, then a "snowball-in-hell" campaign for US Senate in NM in the late 70's, and for the past 20 years have worked extensively to pressure the FDA to rescind its approval for aspartame, the neurotoxic artificial sweetener metabolized as formaldehyde. This may be becoming a reality to an extent in California, which, under Proposition 65, is considering requiring a mandatory Carcinogen label on all aspartame products, although all bureaucracies seem to stall under any kind of corporate pressure.


Bills to ban aspartame were in the State Senates of New Mexico and Hawaii, but were shut down by corporate lobbyists (particularly Monsanto lobbyists in Hawaii and Coca Cola lobbyists in New Mexico).


For several years, I was the editor of New Mexico Sun News, and my letters to the editor and op/eds in 2016 have appeared in NM, California, Wisconsin, New York, Maryland, the Christian Science Monitor, USA Today, and many international papers, on the subject of consumer protection. Our best issue was 10 days before Obama won in 2008, when we published a special early edition of the paper declaring that Obama Wins! This was the top story on CNN for many hours, way back then....


My highest accomplishments thus far are

1. a plan to create a UN Secretary General's Pandemic Board of Inquiry, a plan that is in the works and might be achieved even before the 75th UN General Assembly in September 2020.


2. Now history until the needs becomes clear to the powers who run the United Nations: a UN Resolution to create a new Undersecretary General for Nutrition and Consumer Protection, strongly supported ten years ago by India and 53 cosponsoring nations, but shut down by the US Mission to the UN in 2008. To read it, google UNITED NATIONS UNDERSECRETARY GENERAL FOR NUTRITION, please.


These are not easy battles, any of them, and they require a great deal of political and journalistic focus. OpEdNews is the perfect place for those who have a lot to say, so much that they exceed the limiting capacities of their local and regional newspapers. Trying to go beyond the regional papers seems to require some kind of "inside" credentials, as if you had to be in a club of corporate-accepted writers, and if not, you are "from somewhere else," a sad state of corporate induced xenophobia that should have no place in America in 2020!

This should be a goal for every author with something current to say: breaking through yet another glass ceiling, and get your say said in editorial pages all over America. Certainly, this was a tool that was essentially ignored in 2016, and cannot be ignored in the big elections of 2020.


In my capacity as Editor of the Santa Fe Sun News, Fox interviewed Mikhail Gorbachev: http://www.prlog.org/10064349-mikhail-gorbachev