So, it's really no surprise that the AZ Republic just endorsed Mitt Romney. They are a right-leaning paper in a right-leaning state. If you pay attention to their Letters to the Editors section, they very rarely even print letters that are left-leaning. It is not because they aren't getting them, either. In fact, I've sent dozens that have never been printed. The closest I have gotten was an email telling me I was being considered for publication, but was still not published.
So, as I said, this is no surprise. What bugs me, though, is that the editorial is completely devoid of facts or truth. You can read the entire thing here, and here are some choice paragraphs:
Not counting long-term unfunded liabilities tied to Social Security and to many of those Johnson-era programs, the nation is more than $16 trillion in real-time debt, one of the greatest financial-debt burdens in modern history.
The reason Obama's infamous "You didn't build that" comment on July 13 in Roanoke, Va., resonated among his political opponents wasn't because it revealed some great secret.
It resonated because it validated a suspicion that the president has done little to dismiss. He has consolidated federal power and reach in health care, banking, the auto industry and energy production. He has fostered the view that all good economic things flow from Washington.
I've sent a response to the editor, but I don't expect to see it printed, so I wanted to post it here. This is my response:
The editorial supporting Mitt Romney for president is filled with so many manipulations of the truth it is not even funny. Surely the editorial board of the AZ Republic is smarter than this?
Take, for instance, the allusion to the "debt monster." Any well-researched, critical thinker should know that spending has actually increased more slowly under Obama than it has under any other president in the last 20 years; and, the deficit has DROPPED over $400B since 2009 ($1500B to $1100B). Furthermore, you surely know that a large portion of the debt that Obama gets blamed for is because he put the costs of two wars on the books. That debt existed before Obama took office, but Bush had kept it hidden. That's why the debt mushroomed immediately after Obama took office, because, unlike Bush, he was honest with us about the cost of the wars.
It would be one thing to support Romney because of what he stands for, not that anyone really knows what that is, but this is just a bunch of right-wing talking points devoid of real facts. What a bunch of malarkey.
The AZ Republic limits Letters to the Editor to 200 characters, so I couldn't say as much as I wanted to. Hopefully I represented my side well, though.