The Des Moines Register has endorsed Hillary Clinton and John McCain for their parties’ nominations. The Des Moines Register is well-respected and an influential paper in Iowa so this is big news for Hillary Clinton. Even better, here was the
reason the editorial board gave for selecting Hillary Clinton,
Indeed, Obama, her chief rival, inspired our imaginations. But it was Clinton who inspired our confidence. Each time we met, she impressed us with her knowledge and her competence. The times demand results. We believe as president she’ll do what she’s always done in her life: Throw herself into the job and work hard. We believe Hillary Rodham Clinton can do great things for our country.
BTW, The New York Times printed a story yesterday about the editorial board at the Des Moines Register and how coveted its endorsement is. Interestingly, the top three members of the board (there are six members total) are women.
If the Des Moines Register is about 50% women on its Editorial board, that’s just about right…over 50% of American citizens are women, too…seems they have struck a near perfect balance in Iowa. They came up with a stronger case than the boston Globe group.
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p>Dissect: Boston Globe vs Des Moines Register
If you read both Editorials and boil down the points each cite for endorsing Obama and Hillary, it is an interesting result.Given that their positions on most issues are similar, the publishers/editors had to come up with compelling reasons to choose one over the others.
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p>The Globe wants people to vote for Obama based on his intuition rather than experience relative to foreign affairs and most domestic issues and his broad world view perspective they say is at his core (I’m assuming they mean he has lived in several places during his life.)
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p>The Des Moines register wants people to vote for Clinton because she has a depth of experience and understanding of the major issues confronting the country and the intelligence and political toughness the job of president requires. They flirted with the idea of going with Biden for the same reasons but chose Clinton as the stronger choice for 2008.
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p>I think the Des Moines Register makes the stronger case. Intuition and charisma are great…but we need something more substantial in the White House.
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p>Hoping for change is great but hoping is not enough. We need change from the get-go when the Bushes finally, mercifully leave…we need someone who knows how to move the political chess pieces in DC, no learning curve required. Jimmy Carter (a tremendous human being, but weak president) ran against DC on a platform of hoping for change, was elected and you know the rest.
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p>The Des Moines register makes the stronger case.
Look at some past endorsements:
2004 – Edwards
2000 – Bradley
1992 – Simon
1984 – Mondale
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p>Not exactly a list of easy choices and winners. The Register has a history of going for second-tier, “smart” candidates particularly in Democratic races. I frankly thought they’d go for Joe Biden. So the fact that the DMR went for the Establishment, they went for a prohibitively organized and professional front-runner is an exception for them.
And some say Edwards made a much stronger showing at the caucuses than expected in 2004 because of the Des Moines Registrar’s endorsement. Isn’t Joe Biden part of the “Establishment.” For that matter, isn’t Barack Obama part of the “Establishment?” He is a U.S. Senator after all.
All of the major candidates are creatures of elected service, so in some way Establishment. However, Clinton is very much a machine candidate and one of the leaders in the race. Not a typical Reg endorsee, which tells me that they saw something they really liked in her.
Is Lisa Wangsness’ story in the Globe about Hillary’s going door knocking in Manchester this weekend. THAT’s the campaigning she needs to do, instead of the above it all stuff. Keep it up.
A pathalogical liar or Mr Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran.
Ron Paul. A reject the mediocrity of mainstream vote.
Mitt Romney is a pathological liar, but he does seem to change his position alot on the issues. Or were you referring to Rudi?
but I do believe pathalogical liar applies to all of the mainstream candidates. I also have a radical worldview that would take a book to explain. The liar comment originally was meant for Hillary.
But I was driving home – going through the Fresh Pond rotary in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I heard it on the radio and I pulled over and literally wept.