Obama deserves his best marks in foreign policy. Helped by his astute choice of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the administration's balanced, cooperative approach has repaired the country's image with its allies. The president ended the war in Iraq and started winding down the one in Afghanistan. He targeted Al-Qaida's leadership, above all bringing justice to Osama bin Laden._____
Romney's postconvention shift from the neoconservative right to near the center on foreign policy, most notably during last week's debate, only validates the administration's economic sanctions against Iran and its prudent decision not to deploy troops in Syria.
The moderate Romney who reemerged after the convention is more congenial than the Tea Party fellow traveler who won nomination. But who can be certain which Romney will appear next? How can any American be sure where he stands on gay rights, immigration, climate change, reproductive rights and investment in education?
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:
In ordinary times, the remedy might be to scrap the Democratic administration and vote in Mr. Romney's Republican alternative. But these are instead extraordinary times of hardship and challenge. The same recession that decimated American jobs also gave birth to a strain of far-right politics -- the compromise-averse Tea Party movement -- that has come to dominate the Republican Party._____
When Mitt Romney was governor of Massachusetts, he was known as a moderate. But that man has disappeared and no new shake of the Etch A Sketch can bring him back. Despite this long campaign it's hard to know what he believes besides the fact that he believes he should be president.
In making his case to be the nominee for his radically more conservative party, Mr. Romney had to pretend to be someone he wasn't. As part of this makeover, he has promised to scuttle Obamacare, even though it was modeled after his own successful state health care plan, and with only vague notions of how to replace it.
Driven by the political need to repudiate Mr. Obama's bailouts, he stooped so low as to say he would have allowed a large part of the auto industry in Michigan, where he grew up, to go into bankruptcy, which would have doomed it along with millions of jobs. This was not his father's Republicanism.
The Patriot-News (Harrisburg, PA):
Republican Mitt Romney has a history of tackling tough problems in the private and public sectors. He is a successful businessman and is universally hailed as the hero of the 2002 Olympic Games, leading our country out of an embarrassing and costly scandal and pulling off an event praised across the globe._____
As governor of Massachusetts he was considered a moderate and managed to work with both political parties in the Legislature, creating along the way a health care plan so successful the federal government used it as a model.
That is the type of candidate this newspaper could endorse to run our country. Unfortunately, that is not the type of candidate we see in Romney as he campaigns for president, and is why we endorse President Barack Obama for a second term. From issues as varied as health care reform, abortion, global warming and illegal immigration, Romney has morphed his positions.
And with that, he’s altered his moderate stance to one of a self-described “severely conservative” leader. Now, in the waning days of the campaign, his pendulum seems to have moved again, back toward the middle as he courts undecided voters.
San Jose Mercury News:
Barack Obama deserves a second term as president. Mitt Romney does not come close to measuring up to him as an honest, forthright and compassionate leader._____
Obama inherited a mess -- George W. Bush's legacy, which got us into two wars and the worst economic crisis in 80 years. The president has repaired some of the damage; 5 million private-sector jobs have been created since 2008. And he has the best chance of restoring prosperity, certainly better than Romney, whose economic platitudes and foreign policy bluster portend a return to the Bush era.
Obama has kept many of his promises, including passing desperately needed health care and financial reforms, repealing the demeaning don't ask, don't tell policy, winding down the wars and hunting down Osama bin Laden. And he's been straight with us. He said all along that it would take time to undo years of erosion of the middle class and, with it, the consumer base that fuels our economy. Americans prefer bold proclamations from their leaders, but we'll take straight talk every time.
Romney has been dishonest. It's not just his changing positions on so many issues; that almost doesn't matter, since we know his actions will be guided by right-wing ideologues to whom he is beholden. It's the calculated deception that's alarming.
San Francisco Chronicle:
our years ago, candidate Barack Obama projected an optimistic aura of possibility for a nation that was mired in two wars and watching its economy teeter on the brink of collapse. His promise of hope and change has been tempered by the magnitude of the mess he inherited, the surprises and partisan blockade he confronted - and, in some cases, the opportunities he missed to apply his political capital to big issues of our times._____
Still, by most measures, this nation is better off than it was four years ago. The economy is still struggling, but is showing signs of recovery - and new safeguards are in place to restrain the Wall Street recklessness that nearly led us to disaster. The U.S. auto industry is back from the abyss. One war has ended, and the other is winding down. A health care overhaul promises to bring coverage to tens of millions of Americans.
President Obama has disappointed some partisans on the left with his hawkishness on foreign affairs and his willingness to compromise on fiscal issues. Partisans on the right routinely sound the alarm at what they are convinced is Obama's dedication to a big government that will suffocate the free markets and individual liberties that have defined this nation.
The Keene Sentinel (New Hampshire):
After four years of devastating economic turmoil, it’s natural that much of the focus this presidential campaign season has been on the past — appropriately raising questions about whether President Barack Obama set the nation on a course to recovery, or stymied growth and dragged out the worst recession the United States has faced since the Great Depression._____
Mired in two wars and ready for a change in 2008, Americans had optimistically elected a man whose idealism inspired hope that the nation could come together to weather a storm that has proven much more difficult than anyone expected. You can count us among those disappointed that economic recovery has not been quicker and more robust. It’s getting better, and in spite of the challenges here at home Obama also tackled issues related to the country’s place in the world — U.S. forces are out of Iraq, al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden is dead and we’re on a clear path to exiting Afghanistan.
Portsmouth Herald (New Hampshire):
In his first four years in office, President Barack Obama has pulled the country back from financial collapse, improved health care, championed civil rights for women, immigrants and same-sex couples, cut taxes, ended the war in Iraq and kept us on track to leave Afghanistan by 2014._____
He approved the Navy SEAL raid that killed Osama bin Laden.
He has kept America safe during his first four years in office.
For these reasons, and many more that we will enumerate below, we urge our readers to vote for President Obama on Nov. 6.
Detroit Free Press:
The country is safer. Its economy and its largest industry have been restored to health. And health care reform, fought out over 50 years in the U.S. Congress, has at last begun in earnest. When Republicans say pejoratively that Obama “can’t run on his record,” they’re peddling partisan nonsense and indulging a myopic fiction._____
The Free Press enthusiastically endorses Barack Hussein Obama for four more years as president.
Lexington Herald-Leader:
Politicians say what they think voters want to hear. Still, it's disappointing that neither candidate for president is preparing Americans for hard choices ahead._____
Separating rhetoric from reality is especially difficult when considering Republican Mitt Romney, because he has espoused so many conflicting positions. From abortion to taxes and trade with China, he has been all over the map.
Romney's a great salesman, but it's impossible to know what he's selling or predict what he would do if elected. This makes him a risky choice.
Barack Obama has a record as president, and though he has not led us to his post-partisan promised land, he has provided steady, principled leadership during an economic crisis.
The Scranton Times-Tribune:
In January 2009, the heart of the Great Recession and the same month that President Barack Obama took office, the economy lost 800,000 jobs after giving up 3 million over the previous six months - the most for any single month of the previous 60 years. Home foreclosure rates soared. The U.S. auto industry teetered on the edge of collapse, threatening another 3 million jobs throughout its long supply chain. The American banking system and, therefore, the global banking system, were in freefall._____
America was engaged in two protracted wars.
The story of Mr. Obama's stewardship since then has not been one of seamless success but it has been one of slow, steady progress mixed with some significant achievements.
Economic recovery has been painfully slow. Unemployment remains too high, particularly in Northeast Pennsylvania. But there are, at last, more jobs nationally than when Mr. Obama took office. The unemployment rate has receded below 8 percent. Housing markets generally have improved. The auto industry and banks thrive.
The Intelligencer (Pennsylvania):
President Obama deserves another term, for many reasons._____
Taking on health care reform as the first goal of his administration was courageous and brave. The Affordable Health Care Act isn’t perfect. It needs some adjusting, but it is in place. Much of the act is excellent and needed. Yet a Romney administration has vowed to repeal it before it ever takes hold.
On foreign policy, the president has been a magnificent commander-in-chief. He ended the ill-conceived Iraq war. He got bin Laden. He’s drawing down the occupation of Afghanistan. He has repaired alliances with allies and, as a result, gotten even Russia and China to enforce tough economic sanctions against Iran.
On domestic policy, economists generally give credit to the president for stabilizing the U.S. economy after the previous Bush administration had driven it off a cliff. The president’s intercession to save General Motors from the brink of bankruptcy is one of the great success stories of the past four years. Today, GM is prospering. Along the way, the administration has reduced federal employment and has adhered to policies that are bringing down the rate of unemployment.
Toledo Blade:
A second term for President BARACK OBAMA would be a better outcome for Ohio, Michigan, and the rest of the country — and would offer more hopeful prospects for the next four years — than would his replacement by his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney. The Blade recommends the President’s re-election._____
During his administration, President Obama has provided pragmatic, steady, centrist leadership that has served the nation well. He has dealt effectively with economic recession at home and turmoil abroad, much of which he inherited from his predecessor. The stimulus he promoted — along with the auto and bank bailouts — helped prevent the recession from becoming a depression.
Youngstown, Ohio's, The Vindicator:
If there is one corner of Ohio that should vote overwhelmingly for the re-election of President Barack Obama, it is the Mahoning Valley._____
We say that not for the tired old reason that the Valley almost always votes Democratic. We say it because when the question “are you better off today than you were four years ago” is asked, the Mahoning Valley can answer yes. And President Obama has earned much of the credit.
That is not to say that everyone in the Valley who wants a job has a job or that no families are under economic duress.
Raleigh News-Observer:
Ever since he electrified the 2004 Democratic National Convention with a keynote speech, Barack Obama of Chicago had been marked as a man who might be destined for the White House. Destiny was fulfilled sooner than expected. The then-Illinois senator, a first-termer, was introduced to the next convention four years later as the nominee after a brutal series of primaries that saw him overcome candidates that included Hillary Clinton, the accomplished first lady who now is his secretary of state._____
Now Obama seeks a second term, having weathered some early problems dealing with his own Democrats when they controlled Congress, and then running into a brick wall in a Republican-run House.
Yet despite congressional Republicans who vowed to make their first priority his defeat at all costs, the president has accomplished much in his first term.
The Buffalo News:
If this election were merely a referendum on the leadership of President Obama, endorsing him for a second term would be no sure thing. He has too often been absent where leadership was needed and insufficiently aggressive in the face of reckless tea party politics._____
What is more, after having spent a lifetime in politics and virtually none in the private sector, he knows a lot about spending public money and not enough about how to earn it.
But elections aren’t decided in a vacuum; they represent a choice between alternatives and, in that light, it is clear that Obama is the better choice. Despite his weaknesses, he possesses notable strengths and kept the country functioning despite the twin challenges of a historic recession and a wildly dysfunctional Congress.
What is more, Mitt Romney has not shown himself to be the kind of man the nation needs as a president.
Frankly, Romney virtually disqualified himself as a serious candidate in the secretly recorded comments he made to a private gathering of donors earlier this year. That was the infamous and revealing speech in which he flatly declared that 47 percent of Americans believe they are victims, that they pay no income tax and that it is his job “not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.”
Tacoma News Tribune:
Is the country better off than it was four years ago? We believe the answer is yes and that Barack Obama deserves re-election._____
Four years ago, before Obama’s election, the United States was sliding into its deepest economic downturn since the 1930s. The economy is still in the doldrums, and the jobless rate remains far too high. But the financial system is not flirting with collapse, and few Americans wake up in fear of another Great Depression.
Presidents do not stage-manage the U.S. economy. If politicians of either party knew exactly how to deliver unbroken prosperity, they would have done it a long time ago. This is less of a science than economists like to admit, in part because there’s no second United States to serve as a control group.
Obama played a very bad hand well. The maligned Troubled Asset Relief Program, the 2009 stimulus bill and such smaller measures as the Social Security payroll tax cut may well have kept the nation from falling off a cliff.
Hartford Courant:
Taking office as the economy was cratering, facing two wars and other crises abroad, and being fought at every turn by determined congressional Republicans has tested President Barack Obama._____
The president has passed those tests, though not without leaving skin on the sidewalk. He can look back at a solid, if not remarkable, record of accomplishment that earns this Democrat our endorsement for a second term over Republican Mitt Romney.
No, Mr. Obama didn't change the culture of Washington, if "culture" is the right word. He made some mistakes, disappointed many. But as Paul Glastris observed in Washington Monthly earlier this year, Mr. Obama looks good when compared to other presidents.
Miami Herald:
Given the avalanche of mudslinging in the presidential race, voters can easily forget that both President Obama and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney have positive stories to tell about themselves and their records._____
For President Obama, it includes ending the war in Iraq, which seemed like mission impossible when he took office. It includes beginning the wind-down of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan that began when today’s high school seniors entered first grade. He made a gutsy call to get Osama bin Laden.
Saving the car industry was an equally tough call, and a good one. And the much-maligned Affordable Care Act ensures that Americans won’t go broke just because they get sick. He found two well-qualified women for the Supreme Court and got them confirmed without too much fuss.
Wausau Daily Herald:
We endorse President Barack Obama for a second term.
Here’s how the Wausau Daily Herald Editorial Board considered the presidential candidates on a range of key issues:
• Jobs and the economy. No one, certainly not us, is satisfied with the way the recovery from the Great Recession has gone. The operative questions are not whether the economy is growing (it is) or whether it’s growing fast enough (it isn’t). It is which candidate’s policies would best aid in moving it forward.
Obama’s response to the 2008 crisis was the 2009 economic stimulus law, and it gives a sense of his approach. That law was a mixture of tax cuts, direct government spending and state aid. His jobs bills have stalled in Congress, but it’s a good bet that this type of cocktail mixture of methods to goose the economy will continue to characterize Obama’s approach.
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