Louisville Courier-Journal: McCain As Proven Leader "Simply Unfounded"

It may have taken 8-10 days before the election until I actually saw anyone in the corporate media admit that the conventional wisdom on John McCain being a "proven leader" is a bunch of crap, but better late than never, I guess.

And who would have guessed that it would come from a newspaper in a deep-red state like Kentucky?

In its Saturday editorial endorsing Barack Obama for president, the Louisville Courier-Journal slaps McCain around considerably, but most notably when challenging him on the "proven leader" label the media has allowed him to apply to himself for the entire election cycle.

Saying that "some elections are far more important than others" and calling Obama "an inspiring choice for president," the Courier-Journal makes it clear that McCain is no leader as far as their editorial board is concerned and that he has been wrong on Iraq almost every step of the way.

"The claim that Sen. McCain is a proven leader is simply unfounded," reads the Obama endorsement. "His stumbling and unsteady response to the financial crisis (preceded by admissions that he doesn't know much about the economy) were unnerving. The jury is still out on his insistence that the Iraq 'surge' has worked, but the record is clear that he was wrong about Iraq at every step before that."

And, like most newspaper endorsements in the last month, the Courier-Journal singles out McCain's choice of running mate Sarah Palin as a primary reason to question his fitness for office.

"Most alarming of all, perhaps, is the cynical indifference he showed for the nation's safety and welfare in selecting Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate," reads the editorial. "Her utter lack of qualifications for national leadership has alienated even many leading conservative thinkers."

And, Kentucky's biggest newspaper adds, this guy may have been a "maverick" at one time, but those days are long gone.

"Gone is the 'maverick' who opposed President Bush's disastrous tax cuts, which drained the nation's treasury while providing little overall economic uplift. Gone is the principled war hero who fought against America's resort to torture. Gone is the 'man of honor' who wanted to raise the tenor of politics.

"Sen. McCain instead has capitulated to the far-right obsessions of his party's base. He has embraced anti-tax extremism, disappeared on torture and looked the other way as surrogates leveled execrable accusations of 'palling around with terrorists' and 'socialism' toward Sen. Obama."

Given that the only leadership McCain has shown in eight years is leading Congressional Republicans behind George W. Bush like lapdogs -- after letting himself and his family get savaged by Team Bush in the 2000 Republican primaries -- it's great to see one editorial step up to the plate and tell it like it really is on this "proven leader" nonsense.

You can read the entire editorial here.