Those of you outside the South Bay of the Los Angeles area (South of LAX down to San Pedro, serving the cities of El Segundo, Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach, Torrance, Palos Verdes, Carson, and Lomita) should know that the local paper, The Daily Breeze has for the first time ever endorsed a Democrat for president.
This is a very big deal. The editorial page is quite conservative, with frequent columns by Dennis Prager, Laura Ingraham, Cal Thomas, George Will, and others. Here is their very simple but pointed lead in:
Though the Daily Breeze has endorsed candidates from both major political parties for the offices of U.S. Senate on down, we have for decades endorsed Republican candidates for president. That streak ends today.
We endorse Barack Obama for the nation's top elected post only after much retrospection about the last eight years, the current financial meltdown and what seems to be a very uncertain future. We're certainly not experts in economics, foreign policy, retooling our infrastructure or energy policies. What we do know, however, is that current policies are not working.
I really believe these "small town" papers are important in showing those Fox News viewers that Barack Obama is not at all the person whom the right wing fringe paints him as, nor, by extension, how the McCain campaign has tried to portray him.
The editorial board also likes Obama's steadiness and poise:
We liked the way Obama carried himself in the final presidential debate. While McCain seems more impulsive and occasionally shoots from the hip, Obama's tone was one of reassurance and stability. He talked about the need for bipartisanship to solve complex problems instead of the traditional Washington mode of partisans butting heads rather than building consensus.
And they also like his policies:
Obama's goal of fundamentally altering our energy use is also one of the most important issues facing the nation. We should dedicate our efforts to ending the need to import oil from the Middle East and Venezuela within a decade. As Obama said in the last debate, this can be done through a renewed effort to develop alternative energies, build alternative-energy vehicles, enact higher fuel-efficiency standards and a push for more domestic energy production, including the export of natural gas from Alaska.
We generally approve of Obama's promise to put in place policies and efficiencies to ratchet down health care costs while expanding coverage - and not replacing employer-based policies with a monolithic system.
The board also puts to rest any unease about Obama's experience, and this is directed to the right:
Many people feel Obama is not experienced enough to lead the nation. Our view is that if he surrounds himself with knowledgeable hands, he can succeed. After all, he has a law degree from Harvard and was the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review. He's worked on community-based initiatives, taught constitutional law and for a time served as a research analyst for a financial consulting company. He served for eight years in the Illinois State Senate and chaired that body's Health and Human Services Committee. And since 2004, he's served in the U.S. Senate.
If elected, Obama will have a Democratic Congress to work with. But if he goes too far to the left with his programs, allows the economy to drag further and alienates the middle class, he will likely face the same fate as President Bill Clinton: a GOP takeover of one or both houses of Congress a couple of years into his presidency.
In view of such inevitable checks and balances on his ability to govern, and given the challenges before us, we endorse Barack Obama for president.
All in all, a very favorable piece from a paper that is very disinclined to say anything good about anyone with a "D" next to one's name.