Friday, January 25, 2008

The Times endorses McCain

John McCain is endorsed by the New York Times today. I'm sure that's a headache he didn't need. Any Republican seeking the party's nomination who is endorsed by the Times knows that this is going to make the average Republican voter wary. The Times takes a meek swipe at McCain, but damns him with this at the end.
He has been a staunch advocate of campaign finance reform, working with Senator Russ Feingold, among the most liberal of Democrats, on groundbreaking legislation, just as he worked with Senator Edward Kennedy on immigration reform.
Good Lord, but they just summed up the arguments against McCain as far as the average Republican goes.

The Times editorial kicks each of the other candidates in the shin, but focuses most of its editorial on Rudy Giuliani.
Why, as a New York-based paper, are we not backing Rudolph Giuliani? Why not choose the man we endorsed for re-election in 1997 after a first term in which he showed that a dirty, dangerous, supposedly ungovernable city could become clean, safe and orderly? What about the man who stood fast on Sept. 11, when others, including President Bush, went AWOL?

That man is not running for president.

The real Mr. Giuliani, whom many New Yorkers came to know and mistrust, is a narrow, obsessively secretive, vindictive man who saw no need to limit police power. Racial polarization was as much a legacy of his tenure as the rebirth of Times Square.
I don't think Giuliani could have hoped for better material for his campaign. They hate him because he was right about New York.