The Columbus Dispatch may have follwed a predictably reactionary path to endorsing W (and a remarkably tepid endorsement at that), but the
student paper at Ohio State University has thrown it's weight behind Kerry.
Before you pooh-pooh another college paper's endorsement, consider: OSU is the largest university in a battleground state (undergrad enrollment 58,000+) and there is no noticable "lefty-liberal" sentiment here. In fact, I was shocked to see that Ohio 18-24 voters lean towards Kerry, given my experience here.
A few choice bits from the endorsement:
While Bush has grossly underfunded the programs set up by the No Child Left Behind Act, Kerry plans to ensure schools are properly funded. And while Bush's Web site is nearly silent on the issue of college education, Kerry's Web site comes out swinging. Kerry plans to provide a tax credit worth up to $4,000 for college tuition and provide aid to states that keep public university costs down. Bush's focus on K-12 education has trickled down, causing some of the budget cuts at OSU. Kerry's plan would give strong encouragement to Ohio universities to keep their tuition costs down
snip
Finally, Bush has also made a mess of international relations through his recklessly aggressive foreign policy of preempetive war on a country that has now proven to have possessed no weapons of mass destruction and no previous ties to al Qaeda. From Day 1, the war on Iraq was handled disgracefully by the administration.
In a country that is strongly divided on many important issues, America needs a unifier - not a divider. America needs John Kerry in office.