In the most politically fluid purple area in a major swing state the Tampa Bay Times has endorsed President Obama for another four year term.
The Tampa Bay Times endorsed President Obama in 2008 so this is no big surprise. The Times is a owned by the non-profit, non-partisan Poynter Institute
Four years ago, Barack Obama offered an inspiring message of hope and change to an uneasy nation bogged down in two wars and facing economic collapse. The rosy idealism quickly gave way to the harsh realities of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. The recovery has proven more difficult than anyone imagined. But conditions would be far worse without the president's steady leadership. This is not the time to reverse course and return to the failed policies of the past. Without hesitation, the Tampa Bay Times recommends Barack Obama for re-election as president.
By many measures, the economy is improving steadily even if growth remains painfully slow. There have been 31 straight months of job growth, and more than 5 million private sector jobs have been created. The unemployment rate is down to 7.8 percent — not great, but the same as when Obama took office. The stock market has come back, new housing starts are the highest in four years and housing prices in Tampa Bay and other areas are rising. The financial industry is stable, interest rates remain low and corporate profits are healthy. There is still too much economic pain, but America is better off than most of the rest of the industrialized world.
Of interest is the following from
The Times comparing the economic progress the US has made against that of the other industrialized countries who were impacted by the economic crash of 2008.
Among the Group of 7 industrialized countries, only three economies have climbed above the peaks they hit before the recession: Canada, Germany and the United States. France, Japan, Britain and Italy are in worse shape. So are Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Greece. Obama's economic policies clearly had a positive impact.
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1:40 PM PT: New CNN poll shows dead heat for Florida...Hopefully this endorsement will help! http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/...