US dailies endorse Kerry for president

NEW YORK – The New York Times and several smaller US papers endorsed John Kerry for president yesterday, while the Dallas Morning News went to bat for Texas native George W. Bush.

The Times was the first US daily of national influence to unveil its choice. The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times and the Wall Street Journal have yet to do so.Kerry’s “wide knowledge and clear thinking” are the makings of “a great chief executive,” the Times said in a lengthy editorial 16 days before Americans go to the polls on November 2.While Kerry’s candidacy initially seemed mostly to tap into public dissatisfaction with US President George W.Bush, over time “we have come to know Mr Kerry as more than just an alternative to the status quo,” the Times said.”We like what we’ve seen,” it said.The Times’ backing is one of the most coveted and influential of any endorsements during the US presidential campaign, although given the newspaper’s somewhat left-of-centre tendency, not entirely unexpected.As for Bush, the Times had few kind words in calling for the end of his presidency, which the paper’s editors referred to as “disastrous”.The daily enumerated a litany of complaints – from the war in Iraq to tax cuts for the well-to-do, to his “disrespect for civil liberties and inept management” – in calling for his dismissal.”We look back on the past four years with hearts nearly breaking, both for the lives unnecessarily lost and for the opportunities so casually wasted,” the Times said.The Dallas Morning News, from Bush’s home state of Texas, was an exception, declaring: “Americans want and need a president with a backbone steeled by courage and a heart tendered by compassion.””Having been tempered by the most eventful and consequential four years served by any US president since Franklin D Roosevelt’s third term (1941-1945), Mr Bush has earned the right to hold firm to his charge for another term,” the paper argued.The editors said they were “disappointed” by his failure to rein in domestic spending, the deaths of American soldiers in Iraq, and strained relationships abroad.- Nampa-AFPThe Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times and the Wall Street Journal have yet to do so.Kerry’s “wide knowledge and clear thinking” are the makings of “a great chief executive,” the Times said in a lengthy editorial 16 days before Americans go to the polls on November 2.While Kerry’s candidacy initially seemed mostly to tap into public dissatisfaction with US President George W.Bush, over time “we have come to know Mr Kerry as more than just an alternative to the status quo,” the Times said.”We like what we’ve seen,” it said.The Times’ backing is one of the most coveted and influential of any endorsements during the US presidential campaign, although given the newspaper’s somewhat left-of-centre tendency, not entirely unexpected.As for Bush, the Times had few kind words in calling for the end of his presidency, which the paper’s editors referred to as “disastrous”.The daily enumerated a litany of complaints – from the war in Iraq to tax cuts for the well-to-do, to his “disrespect for civil liberties and inept management” – in calling for his dismissal.”We look back on the past four years with hearts nearly breaking, both for the lives unnecessarily lost and for the opportunities so casually wasted,” the Times said.The Dallas Morning News, from Bush’s home state of Texas, was an exception, declaring: “Americans want and need a president with a backbone steeled by courage and a heart tendered by compassion.””Having been tempered by the most eventful and consequential four years served by any US president since Franklin D Roosevelt’s third term (1941-1945), Mr Bush has earned the right to hold firm to his charge for another term,” the paper argued.The editors said they were “disappointed” by his failure to rein in domestic spending, the deaths of American soldiers in Iraq, and strained relationships abroad.- Nampa-AFP