Alaska's Biggest Newspaper And Hartford Courant Endorse Obama

Well, I guess to know her is to not like her… Two weeks after calling Governor Sarah Palin "an embarrassment to Alaskans and the nation," Alaska's biggest newspaper, The Anchorage Daily News on Saturday endorsed Barack Obama to be America's next president.

"Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic nominee, brings far more promise to the office," reads the Daily News endorsement. "In a time of grave economic crisis, he displays thoughtful analysis, enlists wise counsel and operates with a cool, steady hand. The same cannot be said of Sen. McCain."

Here's more:

It is Sen. Obama who truly promises fundamental change in Washington. You need look no further than the guilt-by-association lies and sound-bite distortions of the degenerating McCain campaign to see how readily he embraces the divisive, fear-mongering tactics of Karl Rove. And while Sen. McCain points to the fragile success of the troop surge in stabilizing conditions in Iraq, it is also plain that he was fundamentally wrong about the more crucial early decisions. Contrary to his assurances, we were not greeted as liberators; it was not a short, easy war; and Americans -- not Iraqi oil -- have had to pay for it. It was Sen. Obama who more clearly saw the danger ahead.

The unqualified endorsement of Sen. Obama by a seasoned, respected soldier and diplomat like Gen. Colin Powell, a Republican icon, should reassure all Americans that the Democratic candidate will pass muster as commander in chief.

Meanwhile, in the weekend's other body blow to the McCain-Palin ticket, the Hartford Courant made Obama only the second Democratic presidential candidate it has endorsed in the paper's 244-year history.

Calling Obama "inspiring," "unifying" and saying "he would make the nation proud," the Courant gave Obama its full endorsement over John McCain.

"Mr. Obama has the right qualities of leadership, the elevating, can-do message that 'we are the ones we have been waiting for' and the calm temperament for these anxious times," said the Courant editorial board. "He has the counsel of such trusted figures as former Republican Secretary of State Colin Powell and investment legend Warren Buffett."

More from The Courant's editorial, published on Sunday:

Even if he doesn't become president, the huge crowds he has drawn; the record-breaking donations he has raised from an unprecedented number of contributors; and the nomination he won — all have rewarded the late Martin Luther King Jr.'s faith that one day his children would "live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

The times cry out for a leader of Mr. Obama's mettle. Americans have suffered through years of losses, from the nearly 3,000 people who died on Sept. 11, 2001, through the more than 4,000 American troops killed in Iraq and Afghanistan and the tens of thousands wounded. More than a million people have lost their homes through foreclosure. Economists are warning that the United States is facing the gravest economic threat since the Great Depression.

Republican Sen. John McCain has failed to persuade us he could wake the nation from this seven-year nightmare.

Links for the full Anchorage Daily News and Hartford Courant editorials are here and here, respectively.