Friday, October 17, 2008

LAT weighs in...

The Los Angeles Times has weighed in. They have endorsed Barack Obama for President, saying:

“The excitement of Obama's early campaign was amplified by that newness. But as the presidential race draws to its conclusion, it is Obama's character and temperament that come to the fore. It is his steadiness. His maturity.”


“…the presidential campaign has rendered McCain nearly unrecognizable. His selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate was, as a short-term political tactic, brilliant. It was also irresponsible, as Palin is the most unqualified vice presidential nominee of a major party in living memory.”


“Obama's selection also was telling. He might have scored a steeper bump in the polls by making a more dramatic choice than the capable and experienced Joe Biden. But for all the excitement of his own candidacy, Obama has offered more competence than drama.”


“We may one day look back on this presidential campaign in wonder. We may marvel that Obama's critics called him an elitist, as if an Ivy League education were a source of embarrassment, and belittled his eloquence, as if a gift with words were suddenly a defect. In fact, Obama is educated and eloquent, sober and exciting, steady and mature. He represents the nation as it is, and as it aspires to be.”


Nicely said from a newspaper that has gone from “world class” to “world class joke” in a decade. Maybe the LA Times is turning things around. One can always hope. It could not get much worse.

1 comment:

Be Brief said...

Quit baggin on the LA Times. You got your endorsement (not even a practice I agree with newspapers doing and one the Times hadn't done in three decades).

While they've recently had to cut their news gathering division and I would not have fired Robert Scheer the Times is far from a joke.

The paper won 5 Pulitzer's in 2004. At the time that was the second highest total ever, behind who, the NY Times.

http://articles.latimes.com/2004/apr/06/nation/na-pulitzer6

Here's a list of the times PP awards.

http://www.latimes.com/services/newspaper/mediacenter/la-mediacenter-pulitzers,0,6930216.story