October 17, 2008, Dog Bites Man
In a [not particularly] stunning move, the Washington Post, whose managing editor is [my college classmate] Marcus Brauchli... wait for it... endorsed [my college classmate] Barack Obama for President.
WaPo's main criticism of McCain-- who the editorial acknowledged liking and admiring-- is the inability to reconcile McCain's purported strength on national security with his choice of a running-mate who is simply unprepared to be commander in chief. WaPo also acknowledged McCain's lack of coherent economic policies, especially his newfound support of the Bush tax cuts.
WaPo's rap on Obama, of course, concerns WaPo's principal weakness and Obama's principal electoral strength, i.e., "it's the Iraq war, stupid," in which WaPo seems never to have met a pointless American intervention that needs to be ended yesterday that it didn't like. Well, no plan is perfect as they say, and, well, see above.
Did we mention that, with all the debates now completed and Obama-Biden having been perceived by all-non-Republican-partisans as having handily won them all, and on-the-not-pleasant-cusp-of-economic-catastrophe, Obama right now has opened up significant leads in national polling and in most swing states, so that WaPo is quite likely simply lining up behind the eventual winner? Just saying...
Meanwhile, at the Al Smith Dinner...