"Hillary Clinton is the Democrats' best choice"
This is no slouch weekly. This is our Capital's influential answer to the tool Union Leader. This is the paper that called out Mitt Romney with an Anti-Endorsement, calling him a "Phony".
If you were building a Republican presidential candidate from a kit, imagine what pieces you might use: an athletic build, ramrod posture, Reaganesque hair, a charismatic speaking style and a crisp dark suit. You'd add a beautiful wife and family, a wildly successful business career and just enough executive government experience. You'd pour in some old GOP bromides - spending cuts and lower taxes - plus some new positions for 2008: anti-immigrant rhetoric and a focus on faith.
Follow along on the flip side.
And in the Romney slice and dice, they speak about our primary, my primary and our Granite Headed devotion to picking them right.
When New Hampshire partisans are asked to defend the state's first-in-the-nation primary, we talk about our ability to see the candidates up close, ask tough questions and see through the baloney. If a candidate is a phony, we assure ourselves and the rest of the world, we'll know it.
Mitt Romney is such a candidate. New Hampshire Republicans and independents must vote no.
This great and honorable paper, The Concord Monitor has endorsed Hillary Clinton
Hillary will hit the ground running.
Immediately after taking office, President Hillary Clinton would begin preparations to withdraw American troops from Iraq.
She would send a message to world leaders that the United States intends to rejoin the community of nations.
She would make clear to federal employees that they must heed the Constitution.
She would reverse Bush-era policies that have harmed the environment.
She would quickly sign legislation supporting stem-cell research and expanding children's health insurance.
She would lift the gag rule prohibiting international family planning programs from counseling poor women about abortion
They go on to speak about "green presidents" and the fabled first 100 days. Hillary will need no time to rock and roll.
Many White House administrations start off slowly, as green presidents fumble through their early months, unsure how to bend Washington to their will. Come 2009, America will be unable to afford such squandered time.
Clinton's ambitious to-do list for her first few weeks in office gives us confidence that her priorities are right and that she would act swiftly to make a positive difference. She is the Monitor's choice in the Jan. 8 Democratic primary.
They say exactly what many of her supporters say about Hillary. The reasons I believe she is our best chance to beat the republican slime machine and the best one to get going out of the gate.
Barack Obama, more than most, has the power to inspire. The positive tone of his campaign is not a gimmick. He is a serious candidate with sober ideas. For reasons symbolic and substantive, he would also be a nominee Democrats could feel proud to vote for.
But Hillary Clinton's unique combination of smarts, experience and toughness makes her the best choice to win the November election and truly get things done. Before embarking on an agenda of her or his own, the next American president will be forced to undo the damage of the Bush years: ending the war in Iraq, restoring habeas corpus rights, ending the use of torture, healing New Orleans, restoring America's moral authority around the world.
She will fight and fight hard to win back America for Americans.
As a senator, Clinton has earned a reputation for pragmatic and sometimes creative hard work. She forged a bipartisan plan to expand health coverage to military veterans and their families. She helped secure critical federal assistance for Manhattan after the Sept. 11 attacks. By stalling the confirmation of President Bush's FDA appointee, she gained over-the-counter access for the morning-after pill. Her work with Senate Republicans, including the leader of the impeachment prosecution against her husband, gives us confidence that the cartoon version of Hillary Clinton - as a leading actor in an exhaustingly partisan Washington soap opera - is a 1990s anachronism.
As a veteran of her own campaigns and her husband's, and as a favorite target of Republicans, she has become a tough campaigner. Unlike John Kerry, she would not dither when the inevitable attacks came.
They also don't miss the gender issue. A woman nominee will create the largest registration of new voters, first time voters and the invisibles. A woman such as Hillary will bring a Democratic landslide.
The election of America's first female president will show more than half the population - including millions of young girls - that their futures are not limited by their gender, that America has moved a little closer to its ideals of liberty and justice for all. There is plenty of inspiration in that.
In a talented field, Hillary Clinton has the right experience, the right agenda and the know-how to lead the country back to respect on the world stage and meaningful progress on long-neglected problems.
Hillary Clinton is far and away the best choice, the progressive choice, the choice and the candidate who will win the White House in 2008.
Read the full endorsement here