FINAL SUNDAY UPDATE: 15 Papers Endorse Obama, None for McCain

As some you know, E&P is famous for charting every editorial endorsement for president, gaining a good deal of attention in this matter in 2004 -- we accurately predicted the outcome in 14 of the 15 key battleground states based solely on the endorsements.  So far this year Obama leads McCain 26-9 (it's early) and has already picked up at least three papers that endorsed Bush in 2004.  We will have a new chart on Monday-- here is what we ran on Friday.

The latest:  Today, Obama picked up nine  key newspaper endorsements in swing states, earning the nod from, among others,  the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, The Blade of Toledo, the Dayton Daily News,  Asheville Citizen-Times in North Carolina, and the Wisconsin State Journal (which backed Bush in 2004) in Madison.  The St. Louis daily called McCain, "the incredible shrinking man" who had made a horrific pick for his running mate.  Joining the Obama team in battleground  states were the Muskegon (Mich.) Chronicle, the Lehigh Valley (Pa.) Express-Times and Springfield (Ohio) News.  Six other major papers in an apparent non-swing state also backed Obama today:  The Tennessean in Nashville and the San Bernardino Sun (which had backed Bush over Kerry), Contra Costa Times, The Herald of Monterrey, Sacramento Bee and Fresno Bee in California.  For quotes and more go to our site.

Comments

[CarolO]

I am a 65 year old white woman and have voted in every election since I was of age to do so. I have seen some rotten campaigns in my time but McCain's campaign has taken on a whole new meaning of hatefulness.

People in this country are known to be a people that come together during bad times. We have this economic crisis, the war in Iraq and the war in Afghanistan to worry about. We have nuclear weapons being harvested and the price of gas out of sight. We have hundreds of people being thrown out of their homes, vehicles repossessed, business shutting down or moving oversea's.

And now we have the McCain/Palin ticket running the nastiest, fear-mongoring, lying and working their crowds into pitbull frenzies. This is totally disgraceful and I will never look at John McCain the same again. I feel only distain for him.

[Cy Guy]

To E&P, please have a single page that is keeping track of these. I'm already confused because the count you had prior to today [Today's Editorial Endorsement Tally: Obama and McCain Split (So Far) -- Send Us Your Pick By Greg Mitchell and Dexter Hill Published: October 11, 2008 11:10 AM ET] had the count as Obama 11, and McCain 9, so if Obama added twelve today, he should have a total of 23, not 22.

Also, you keep saying you are "charting" them, I have yet to find a chart, only lists. A chart implies some kind of graph and at a minimum, an accurate, consistent count.

Finally, the main site links to the blog, and blog is linking to the main each saying is the other to follow endorsements, having a specific page that tracks all of them, with links to individual articles on the main site and the blog would help to resolve that problem - as would having keyword or tagging system (but I can't expect everything).

[Cynthia]

CarolO, You said it all so well. I am so disgusted with the McCain Palin campaign, too. I wish I could just go to sleep until it is all over with. Palin is obsessed with her ex brother-in-law, McCain and his lobbyists are obsessed with Ayers. Palin is inflaming hatred at rallys where grown men sport monkey dolls with Obama stickers on them, and the crowd shouts terrorist!! Kill him!! All this while the nation is trembling over the economic meltdown. Obama has been the calming voice of reassurance, and he is the supposed rookie. Then give me the rookie. I'm relieved that the papers are trending Obama as it backs up my decision and gives me some measure of confidence.

[sherifffruitfly]

You know what's fucking weak? When your site says "see our blog for more", and your blog says "see our site for more".

Fucking pathetic.

[Susan Nunes]

I, too, am keeping track of media presidential endorsements, probably day-by-day now. I not only check here for some, but I have all of the major newspaper links on my links blog and check there (which takes a couple of hours a day), and I am linking to the actual editorials (when available) and excerpting some of what the editors have written.

I did this in 2004 as well.

[Susan Nunes]

Wikipedia also is keeping track of endorsements, with names of papers, totals for each candidate, and readership on a single page.

[John AMson]

Makes sense to me. very well written

www.privacy.es.tc

[Joss]

www.filthyrichmond.com is teh taint.

[tom]

Just remember, whoever the winner is, they were in full support of the socialist move to bailout the people on wall street with up to $850,000,000,000.00 of tax payers money. Now the national debt is over 10.2 trillion. But no one talks about these things and how they are going to LOWER the debt....crazy times. I'd vote for Ron Paul, but in the state of MO, they don't even count write in candidates, we've lost the republic. Sad times are ahead with either of the 2 main candidates. I'm voting for Chuck Baldwin so I don't have that burden on my heart.

[Mel]

These support announcements might have had more meaning had they occurred several weeks ago. I would hazard the guess that if McCain was way ahead in the polls, they would have announced their support for McCain. Its easy to support the apparent winner at the end of a race....

[Alice Stanforth]

Everyone is right the news media is not reliable (impartial), if they are being biased in their news reporting. Newspapers have to deal with their advertisers. If businesses and banks are under stress during these economic times, we need to look more closely at what is being reported. Too many people do not know how to use the technology available to be critical enough to evaluate what they are reading or hear, including the radio talk shows. They are starting to take sides too.

[reality]

WOW. That's amazing! Liberal newspapers supporting a liberal candidate!
Now that's news.
Nevermind that he is probably the least qualified individual to run for President in the history of this country.

[reality]

WOW. That's amazing! Liberal newspapers supporting a liberal candidate!
Now that's news.
Nevermind that he is probably the least qualified individual to run for President in the history of this country.

[reality]

WOW. That's amazing! Liberal newspapers supporting a liberal candidate!
Now that's news.
Nevermind that he is probably the least qualified individual to run for President in the history of this country.

[yahzick11]

Hey Reality,

That's what they said about Abe Lincoln...who had even less experience than Obama. That sure turned out horribly, didn't it?

[lakai]

Last I heard Abe Lincoln was asassinated. Of course you would probably say he was killed because he was a good president. It's a fact that most people hated him.

[Non-reality]

I really enjoy that when people try to make arguments for things, they say "I am coming from the standpoint of reality!" as if they actually comprehend what reality is. As if they have enough information to make an educated decision about their opinion. These are the self-centric ego-maniacs of our time. These are the people with the highest amount of unwarranted self-importance.

that said, the political system is probably not going to change anytime soon, if you look at trends. we're allowing ourselves to be fucked and i'm about ready to jump ship and move to europe.

[McCain is an idiot]

I think this is a non-issue.

I know McCain/Palin supporters can play the banjo and shoot rifles, but I didn't know that they could read.

[More Info]

Here's a comprehensive list:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newspaper_endorsements_in_the_United_States_presidential_election,_2008

[Nobama]

yeah, and Obama supporters can collect welfare, commit terrorist acts against the USA and register fraudulent voters.

[Mike B]

I love Republicans, patriots when your canidate wins, Nazi criminals when your canidate is behind. Cowards!

Hey reality at least read the article before you spout your idiotic garbage. Three of the newpapers supported Bush and Co. I love watching the Republican party fracture down the middle.

[AvangionQ]

"Final Sunday Update: 15 Papers Endorse Obama, None for McCain" ... the problem being, people who are low-information voters like George Bush and Sarah Palin don't read the newspapers and won't care.

[John]

It's great how idiots can look at the Annenburg Foundation and call them terrorists. The same Foundation that hired Ayres to sit on its board along with Obama.

Oh...that's right, they're not called terrorist supporters because they donate to Republicans, but they obviously know Bill Ayers as well and probably know him better than Obama. Some of us will start to demand that the Annenburgs be checked out as well. Terrorist being what they are you can never be to sure..

If the hypocricy gets any larger, then all Republicans may disappear someday and come back as the Repuliklan Party. IDIOTS.

[Sean Mulligan]

These aren't liberal newspapers. Many of them supported Bush last time.

[ABE]

MONTEREY CA, NOT MONTERREY MEXICO!!!!!!