The Boston Globe Endorses President Obama Over Their Former Gov Romney

Last updated on February 8th, 2013 at 06:41 pm

After the Salt Lake Tribune endorsed Obama, Romney must have been relieved when his other home state paper the Detroit News endorsed him. But today, the real blow comes from Massachusetts, where he was Governor. The Boston Globe has endorsed President Obama.

The Globe writes of many reasons to reelect Obama, saying that not only would a second term be a mandate against the Republican obstructionism, but it would curb the power of special interests:

“Obama’s reelection would also curb the growing power of special interests, who so often hide their self-serving agendas behind a facade of fist-in-the-air patriotism and promises of low taxes. Anyone who lived through the crash of 2008, and now sees Republicans in Congress seeking to thwart the Dodd-Frank law’s protections, should sense the true impetus behind all the pronouncements about unleashing the job creators. The Supreme Court’s wrongheaded Citizens United decision, granting corporations unlimited power to influence campaigns, provided yet another weapon for the powerful to deploy against the general interest.”

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The Globe praises Obama’s diligence and bipartisanship, and calls out the Republican meme that it’s Obama who is divisive, “He stands between the divides in American society, so some say he must therefore be the source of division. But as president, Obama has reached out repeatedly to Republicans and shied away from the I’m-the-decider pronouncements of his predecessor. He’s been diligent and responsible — to a fault.”

Reminding us where we were and what we avoided under Obama’s leadership (with a few painful reminders of the “chaos” of the Bush years), they write, “As Obama was taking the oath on Jan. 20, 2009, the economy was losing a whopping 818,000 jobs in that month alone, with almost as many to follow in each of the next two months. Soon, Obama’s $787 billion stimulus package stopped the hemorrhage, and the still-bruised labor market has added jobs fitfully ever since.”

The Globe makes more of a case for Obama than a case against Romney, though they seem as confused as most as to which Romney is running for President and this is a danger for a president, “Identifying the real Romney on any major issue — social, economic, or foreign — is impossible. But a president this vulnerable within his party, needing to satisfy a conservative Congress, could never make good on his moderate commitments. Whichever Romney shows up, the Romney years would end up looking a lot like the Bush years.”

Those are scary words. The Globe harkened back to the chaos of Bush in a way that freshly reminded me of what a different style of leadership we have in Obama. We don’t lurch from crisis to crisis having to give Obama the benefit of the doubt when he wasn’t around. Obama canceled his campaign plans as Sandy was heading our way, and he’s been quietly there, working, planning, organizing, calling governors — he’s been there. Obama is a soothing presence, not only because he’s working steadily and he never makes erratic sudden moves, but because we can count on him to never be small or petty. He is always just putting Americans first, as even Governor Chris Christie acknowledged yesterday.

The Boston Globe is the paper that knows Romney’s elected leadership style best. The Salt Lake Tribune would be second in knowing Romney’s leadership style. It would be natural for both papers to have a loyalty to home stater Romney, but both papers went for President Obama.

Sarah Jones

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