Endorsement Season Has Begun-- And It Looks Very Bad For McCain

McCain acknowledges he has no chance to win the richest of all electoral prizes, California's 55 electoral votes. Although he's occasionally flown into the state to collect checks from wealthy reactionary donors, he doesn't bother campaigning in the Golden State. And the first congressional district, which includes the lush, rolling hills of the Napa Valley wine country has gotten so Democratic in its voting habits (PVI is D+10) that this once GOP bastion doesn't have any serious Republican electoral efforts.

The local newspaper in the Napa Valley, the Napa Register, was around even before McCain was born, even before the former slave states that all support McCain decided to secede from the Union. They have finally broken through the 15,000 circulation mark and they are hoping to reach 20,000 before the End Times. This weekend, the Napa Register was only one of two papers in the country to endorse John McCain and Sarah Palin-- they like their "experience"-- while 16 endorsed Barack Obama and Joe Biden. The other paper that endorsed McCain was the Wheeling News-Register (circulation 18,500). Right now 27 newspapers have endorsed Obama and 11 have come in for McCain, not counting unconstitutional infringements by church publications.

The other California papers that declared this weekend were the Fresno Bee, Sacramento Bee, Contra Costa Times, the Monterey Herald, and San Bernardino's staunchly Republican <Sun. But the big bonanza for Obama came from the battleground states where he picked up major support from the Toledo Blade, the Dayton Daily News, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Asheville (N.C.) Citizen-Times, the Muskegon (Mich.) Chronicle, the Lehigh Valley (Pa.) Express-Times, Springfield (Ohio) News, and former Bush-backers the Wisconsin State Journal. So why the early rush to endorse Obama from these crucial battleground state newspapers-- even before Wednesday's final debate? Let's see what some of them have to say in their own words, starting with Ohio:

The Dayton Daily News called McCain's campaign "disappointing" as he abandoned maverickism for party orthodoxy.

More than his opponent, he has run a relentless stream of commercials that have been discredited by nonpartisan fact-checkers. (Last week, all his ads were negative.) He has articulated no vision for the country other than to suggest that it should believe in him as an individual, as a war hero of independent judgment. His selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate was stunning. She is shockingly lacking in presidential qualifications. Some of Sen. McCain's most enthusiastic supporters have been forced to admit this. Her defenders say her resume compares well with Sen. Obama's, but it does not… [I]n a time of change, Sen. Obama is the more promising leader. With his agile mind, often pitch-perfect judgment and preternatural calm and self-confidence, he seems built for the job of sorting through this thing, if anybody can. The nation faces a choice that looks more and more like a choice between the future and the past. It has never been one to shrink from the future.

The rest of the papers in Ohio had similar messages. The Springfield News Sun said that it's "time for a change and that change cannot be delivered by the Republican candidate who has voiced no real split with the policies of the Bush years." The influential Toledo Blade focused on the economy: "To be sure, the path to recovery won't be easy for the next president. There are ominous signs that the economy will continue to falter before confidence can be restored in the financial system. The leadership required to contain and reorder the economic mess created by eight years of heedless deregulation will have to be both inspired and inspiring. We believe the person best equipped by temperament and intellect to firmly grasp the reins of government and guide it safely forward in these uncertain times is Barack Obama."

The Pittsburgh Post Gazette took a much broader view about the utter and dismal failure of Republican governance in general, calling for a president who will break with the past:

But this election is not just about the shortcomings of Mr. McCain and Ms. Palin and the failed legacy of a philosophy that they seek to perpetuate under the hastily erected banner of maverick. It is about the strengths of Barack Obama, whose rise to prominence is not a fluke or national infatuation but the consequence of his remarkable skills-- a keen intellect, noble intentions and the wit and grace to express them in ways that have inspired millions across the country. He has a rare gift exactly suited to the fearful times-- he knows the language of reassurance and hope.

Also in Pennsylvania, the Easton Express Times is going to Obama not just because of McCain's shortcomings but because of the promise they see in an Obama Adminsitration: "[H]e has demonstrated a cool head in troubled times, because he inspires confidence and because he is conducting an above-board campaign. The next president isn't going to be able to deliver on much of anything that requires new spending. He will have to be a deft, recession-fighting strategist, to avoid being this century's Herbert Hoover. He must end the Iraq war. Obama has the firmer timeline and commitment on this."
The St Louis Post Dispatch isn't kind to McCain and his deceitful and shameless campaign: "Over the past nine months, Mr. Obama, the junior senator from Illinois, has emerged as the only truly transformative candidate in the race. In the crucible that is a presidential campaign, his intellect, his temperament and equanimity under pressure consistently have been impressive. He has surrounded himself with smart, capable advisers who have helped him refine thorough, nuanced policy positions. In a word, Mr. Obama has been presidential. Meanwhile, Mr. McCain, the senior senator from Arizona, became the incredible shrinking man. He shrank from his principled stands in favor of a humane immigration policy. He shrank from his universal condemnation of torture and his condemnation of the politics of smear."

You know it's all over for McCain when he's even attacking Republican propagandists like Bill Kristol for being tools of the liberal media. So while legendary former North Carolina basketball Coach Dean Smith has endorsed Obama, McCain is desperately spending his time trying to deny how closely he worked with ACORN to move forward his pro-corporate immigration bill. When right wingers try making a case that Obama has ties to this nefarious group or that, they love yammering on about ACORN. Let's see what they say about McCain's ACORN connections. And they still want to connect Obama to Osama-- after all look how similar the name is (more than enough "evidence" for the Republican base-- but the only actual al-Qaida supporter in American politics is a close McCain ally, Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, who actually trained in a Taliban camp in Afghanistan and has been their biggest booster in Congress. I don't hear McCain or Fox denouncing Rohrabacher. Can you imagine if a Democratic congressman had been involved with Taliban fighters in Afghanistan the way Rohrabacher was! Of course, there is so much else wrong with this guy that his Taliban connection is only one of dozens of reasons McCain, devoid of the proper character or temperament to be president, should cut ties with him. Watch: