Truly Surprising Endorsements

While Andrew Sullivan's recent announcement of support for John Kerry surprised no one, but the Denver Post endorsement of George Bush for a second term actually shocked me. While neither the Denver Post nor the Rocky Mountain News could be called a rabidly partisan paper, the accepted order of things in the region is that the Post is the liberal paper and the News the conservative one.

So, when the Post came out for Bush, it really did surprise (and disappoint) some people.

Yet, in the context of Nov. 2, it isn't sensible to assess the state of our union in easily definable ways. Ours is an era in which security matters most, and national security is the preeminent duty of the next president.

On Sept. 11, 2001, this country accepted a great challenge - to inflict justice on terrorists who would attack us and to take every reasonable step to protect our homeland. The task has been pursued with dogged resolution, and we think President Bush is best suited to continue the fight.

While I would disagree with a great many points in the editorial, I also recognize good, well-considered arguments and beliefs. It's a long read, but worth the trip; it's also an unexpected voice calling, guardedly, for the re-election of Bush.

Ronald Reagan angered some world leaders and domestic opponents when he took a hard line toward the Soviet Union in his first term, but he was alert to changing winds and in his second term he toured Red Square, engineered a far-reaching arms agreement and offered a strategic embrace to Mikhail Gorbachev as the two men cast off the Cold War. That's the kind of leadership the United States should offer. We believe George W. Bush is up to the challenge.

And that constitutes a belief that I share with the editorial staff of the Denver Post.

Read the rest.

Posted by zombyboy at October 28, 2004 10:20 AM