A lot of right-wing websites are elated this morning at the Orlando Sentinel’s endorsement of Mitt Romney for president, describing the Sentinel as “left leaning” or “progressive” or “Democratic.”
To call the Orlando Sentinel liberal of course is to seriously misread the house organ of the Florida Chamber of Commerce, central Florida edition. That the Sentinel can count Scott Maxwell among its saving graces (for now) doesn’t mean it’s less of a traditionally right-wing apologist for the all-business faction of the Republican Party. A quick reminder: The Sentinel endorsed the first Bush both times (in 1988 and 1992), it endorsed Bob Dole in 1996, and George W. Bush in 2000. It came to its senses, as many newspapers did, in 2004, when it endorsed John Kerry, and Barack Obama in 2008, when endorsing John McCain would have been like choosing a mortician to officiate a wedding. Nevertheless, a newspaper endorsement is a newspaper endorsement, whatever that means anymore now that what’s left of newspapers’ readership looks like a diminishing mass of John McCains with late-Reagan memory problems.
The Sentinel endorsement: “Economic growth, three years into the recovery, is anemic. Family incomes are down, poverty is up. Obama’s Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, highlighted these and other hard truths in this week’s second debate.” Substitute half for hard and you have a more honest assessment. The Obama years may have managed to create more jobs than the first four Bush years (or the four years of the first Bush), even though W was emerging from a much shallower recession, but the judgment on Obama will always be made as if the Great Recession had barely happened. It’s an article of faith now that mentioning his economic inheritance is unacceptable, as if history, like facts, were the disagreeable obstacles to the mythology powering Mitt Romney’s unicorn campaign. Incidentally, the anemic Obama years have created more jobs than all eight years of the Eisenhower administration).
The endorsement continues: “We have little confidence that Obama would be more successful managing the economy and the budget in the next four years. For that reason, though we endorsed him in 2008, we are recommending Romney in this race.” Cleaning up after Bush’s wars, getting health care reform passed, putting the economy back on its rails, reforming the banking system (albeit too timidly): none of those things really matter.
Elizabeth Drew in the current issue of the New York Review of Books describes Obama pointedly as “a contradiction of ambitious and cautious,” a contradiction that often infuriates those of us who consider ourselves his supporters. But she goes on to describe what it is that infuriates his ardent opponents too, and why it’d be a loss to have that once again replaced by the more conventional oiliness of Romeny’s garden-variety politicking. Of Obama, Drew writes, “He’s simply different from the conventional politician. He’s more self-contained, less needy, than almost any president in modern times. (Certainly less so than Bill Clinton or Lyndon Johnson.) He’s quite evidently not displeased with himself—and there’s much to be pleased with himself about. And Obama’s unique personality affects his political dealings. He conducts the business of politics but keeps a certain part of himself in reserve, holds it back. Why this matters is that Obama’s reserve can come across as aloof, be off-putting to other politicians, and translate into a reluctance to get his hands dirty by working with them. It can irritate businessmen who do not understand why he isn’t falling at their feet, doing whatever he can to win their approval.”
Barack Obama’s enduring sin: the negro is not only not prostrate before his masters. He makes them look small, for good reason: they are. And he enjoys it. A bit too much maybe, which ultimately may bring his downfall.
Late afternoon update: From the Times: “Mitt Romney may be something of a Utah native son, having helped turn around the 2002 Salt Lake Olympic Games, attended Brigham Young University and once owning property there. But on Friday, The Salt Lake City Tribune tossed its support to President Obama, in a editorial titled “Too Many Mitts.”
–Pierre Tristam
Jim R. says
A true picture of Obama would portray him with one hand full of money handing it out to wall street, the Bankers and the insurance companies, while the other hand throws bombs at sovereign countries in violation of international law , killing hundreds of innocent people, and averting his face to the slaughter he is responsible for, just as this article ignores his murderous acts in the name of fighting “terrorists” and pats him on the back for his small acts benefitting the economy.
goalie says
Won’t be buying or reading Orlando Sentinel anymore. Rich only worried about themselves.
Jim R says
A true picture of Romney would be of him handing out wheelbarrows full of money to the bankers insurance companies and wall street, while throwing bombs at sovereign countries and killing hundreds of innocent civilians. so What is the difference?
The big con game continues and the Democrats want you to vote out of fear that the republicans will be so radical that they will wreck the country worse than Obama will, Not true, they will both keep nibbling away at social programs while increasing our military adventures around the world and signing more free trade deals ( the TPP for instance) that will mean more lost jobs for the U.S. and more slave labor factories in third world countries.
None of the issues that really matter will be discussed in these so called debates, like how do we dismantle the consumer society, end the ever expanding capitalist model and still manage to give the necessities of life to everyone, bring a halt to the Empire and it’s murderous rampage around the world and try to stop the degradation of our environment, and mitigate the human causes of global warming.
If you enjoy participating in a farce, vote for either of these corporate tools and watch your country continue it’s march towards total collapse.
w.ryan says
I want the socialism to continue. Social Security, Obama-Care, help for the economy, and compassion for my unemployed self; from my last job shut down by Romney, because I can’t afford to relocate overseas for employment. I would still be underpaid anyway. I want the corporate welfare to be rescinded. I don’t want a conservative Supreme Court because I believe government should not interfere with a woman’s choice to choose what’s best for body. I also want a supreme court who knows the difference between a person and a corporation, I want a tax break because I need one. I don’t have stock options. And I want people to be happy with whom ever they choose. If it means marriage…oh what the hell! Why not! I still believe what I believe. It ain’t hurting me! If you like red light cameras and drones flying overhead and Police getting a pass on obeying the constitution asking for your papers because of what you look like then continue to not see the difference. Change comes from being involved and sitting by and not doing anything and saying you know the real deal is the only farce. Hope to see you at the polls regardless of how jaded you are.
Jim R says
I’ll be there, voting third party as usual. My vote is not a defacto vote for Romney or Obama, it’s a vote for who I vote for
Jeff Burdick says
Well, it certainly is endorsement season, with everyone from Honey Boo Boo and those long-winded newspaper editorial boards weighing in. But they should all know that the Fluffington Post has beat them all to the punch with its funny endorsement. Is it who you expect? Read and find out. Enjoy: http://www.chicagonow.com/fluffington-post/2012/09/presidential-endorsement/
John Boy says
Orlando Sentinel endorses the American Taliban, headed up by The Mormon Cult, how disgusting it has become that the Reich Wing has even infiltrated the media, I thought it was limited to Fox, Clear Channel.and similar Red Neck Hate Mongering Newspapers
Prescient33 says
The article reads like left wingers remorse. BHO needs all the help he can get from the latest polls.
Flagler County Residet says
Gee Pierre, why don’t you tell us how you really feel! This is the most subjective piece of reporting I’ve read in a long time. Even for you, it is way over the top.
By the way what is this:”Barack Obama’s enduring sin: the negro is not only not prostrate before his masters. He makes them look small, for good reason: they are. And he enjoys it. A bit too much maybe, which ultimately may bring his downfall.” That is an awful thing to write. I am both appalled and ashamed for you when I read that. So much for objective writing.
Magnolia says
I couldn’t agree with the Sentinel more.
DWFerg says
Why cry about a newspaper endorsement—–Who subscribes to newspapers now anyhow ? When the Florida Times Union failed to endorse a President candidate in 2008, I cancelled my subscription. Any newspaper that tries to catch both supporters has no foundation–Remember , the adage, “if you don’t stand for something, you will go for Anything “- I applaud the Orlando Sentinel for taking a stand(though I don’t read it)–It takes character, substance, and Courage to alienate some portion of its readership. maybe the net effect will be a positive one for their circulation and sustainability(a Democratic mantra)–A conservative opinion that may not find many sympathizers here on this interesting website- Thanks for allowing me the platform to expressmy opinion ………………………………
Dorothea says
The Tampa Bay Times endorsed President Obama. Simply put, who wants to go back to Romney’s endorsement of the failed policies that got the country into this mess in the first place?
Steven Janiszewski says
Obama is a mere mortal who lies because, well, that’s what mortals do. Romney thinks he is a junior varsity god, and he lies because he thinks that we wouldn’t understand the truth. The Trib is on to him. To gain an existential understanding of the cult that produced Mitt Romney, and to get your socks scared off, read The Assassination of Spiro Agnew, available in paperback and e-book on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=…search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=The+Assassination+of+Spiro+Agnew
Its unwilling, part-Mexican Mormon assassin dramatizes the Mormon superiority complex, manifesting it as racism, sexism, jingoism and an anti-federal government temperament. His research in the new library reveals ominous similarities between Islam and Mormonism. The spiritual power behind the cult, which is not the Holy Ghost, acts out.
“With a clarity of language and vision unsurpassed in contemporary American prose, Steven Janiszewski’s Assassination of Spiro Agnew takes us into a U.S. mazed with madness and Mormonism and all things Utah, a U.S. that was then and still is. Do we need a novel, even as brilliant as this one, about a young man on a divine mission to assassinate the Vice President because he is too liberal? Yes, now more than ever. Readers, welcome to a masterpiece.”
Tom Whalen
http://www.tomwhalen.com
Read The Assassination of Spiro Agnew.
Karma says
@Dorthea
Have you ever read any of the editorials in the TB Times. I believe they would in endorse Hugo Chavez if possible. Most of the editorials writers are left to very left. Many of the option pieces come from other left leaning newspaper writers. Race seems to be the popular stories in many of the columns. The only person hated more then Mitt Romney is Rick Scott in the these pieces. Research their editorial board and find out more about them.
It’s not hard to see the bias in today’s newspapers. The internet allows people to see all the news of the world, yet many of today’s major papers cherry pick the stories they feel will help their agenda. Maybe this is why such a large number of Americans no longer few the main stream media objectionable anymore. I am sure you will want to throw in some fox news response in your rebuttal, and that’s fine. But fore you respond to Fox news, Please compare the two stories on Libya, and be honest. Who do you believe is telling the truth? The first story was printed in the TB Times today. The second was a Fox news special report
1. http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-evidence-doesnt-show-planning-in-libyan-attack/2012/10/19/ff7ff326-1a36-11e2-bd10-5ff056538b7c_story.html
2.http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2012/10/19/bret_baier_special_on_libya_death_and_deceit_in_benghazi.html
Dorothea says
@Karma
The first story originated from the Washington Post, a politically centrist newspaper. The second originated from Fox News. You ask, which story is more believable. I go with the Washington Post. Fox News, with its long history as the TV spokeschannel for Republican politics is and never has been believable or unbiased. Intelligent readers and viewers know the difference between opinion and news reporting; Fox News never had a clue or even cared.
Jim R says
http://www.jillstein.org/
Watch the debates mon &tues and see who is addressing the real issues.
Stevie says
“The Tampa Bay Times endorsed President Obama. Simply put, who wants to go back to Romney’s endorsement of the failed policies that got the country into this mess in the first place? ”
No one wants to repeat any failures.
Who wants to continue with the failures of Obama and suffer? He made a bad situation much worse. Study the facts.
Dorothea says
@Stevie
I did study the facts and here they are:
A LONG List of President Obama’s Accomplishments – With Citations
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/09/01/a-long-list-of-president-obamas-accomplishments-with-citations/
Stevie, now it’s your turn to study the facts!
Geezer says
The Sentinel should be renamed the “Daily Planet Kolob.”
w.ryan says
It always seem to go back to race and Islam but never the facts!!! Eyes wide shut!
Geezer says
If it weren’t for Obama being black – Romney would have 20% of the votes.
There would be no contest. Eyes Wide Shut, indeed.
“Take America Back” —from the hoary clutches of the GOP.
Mitch McConnell, head of the Senate Republicans said, ‘my number one priority is making sure
president Obama’s a one-term president.'” The president has done incredibly well despite
“The Party of NO” and their flagrant obstructionism, their filibustering, ball-busting ways.
F’ EM.
I AM VOTING FOR THE BLACK GUY.
confidential says
Romney foreign campaign fundraising… naaah!
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/romney-fundraiser-planned-thursday-hong-123812769.html;_ylt=A2KJ3CXvMYVQag8AGgWTmYlQ
Thanks to our Supreme Court ruling now foreign interest can openly lobby both parties. One more than the other…
confidential says
The “usurer loan shark” Elliott Capital partners and other hedge funds 400% return/interest demanded and achieved from poor or undeveloped countries and supporting/ donating to Romney campaign:
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/nick-dearden/vulture-funds-coming-to-a_b_914691.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/citydiary/9587946/City-Diary-Same-old-tune-as-Paul-Singer-profits-from-bankruptcy.html
The likes of Elliott Capital and other “Vulture Funds profiting from dead or dying economies”