The New York Daily News, the country’s fifth largest newspaper,
endorsed Mitt Romney on Sunday, joining the ranks of more than a dozen
papers that have turned away from Barack Obama after endorsing his
candidacy in 2008.
The paper's endorsement came as a surprise: the News has a staunchly
Democratic editorial viewpoint. The Daily News is also owned by one of
the country's most respected and influential Democrats, Mort Zuckerman,
the billionaire real estate mogul.
But the New York daily staked its arguments against Obama not on
politics but the economy, charging that President Obama’s promises went
unfulfilled.
“Revival of the U.S. as a land of opportunity and upward mobility is the
central challenge facing the next president,” the paper wrote. “The
question for Americans: Who is more likely to accomplish the mission —
Barack Obama or Mitt Romney?”
“Four years ago, the Daily News endorsed Obama, seeing a historic figure
whose intelligence, political skills and empathy with common folk
positioned him to build on the small practical experience he would bring
to the world’s toughest job. We valued Obama’s pledge to govern with
bold pragmatism and bipartisanship. The hopes of those days went
unfulfilled.”
The Daily News argued that Obama inherited a difficult economic
situation but did not provide the right guidance to lead an economic
revival.
“The trend over the Obama years: Goodbye to middle- and high-income jobs
in New York City; hello to positions that pay less than $45,000 a
year,” the paper wrote.
“Recovery from the disaster that Obama inherited was going to take time.
But four years is a long, long slog. Had the president guided a typical
upswing, America would by now have regained essentially all its lost
jobs. At his present pace, Obama would reach that milestone in the third
year of a second term. The regrettable truth is that Obama built a
record of miscalculations and missed opportunities,” the Daily News
editorial said.
The paper, which is considered the publication of working class New Yorkers, even took Obama to task for Obamacare.
“After originally projecting that the program would produce 4 million
more jobs than the country now has, along with a 5 percent jobless rate,
Obama pleads that he saved Americans from more dire straits,” it wrote.
“Next came Obamacare. While the country bled jobs, the president battled
to establish universal health insurance — without first restraining
soaring medical bills. Then he pushed one of the largest social programs
in U.S. history through a Democratic-controlled Congress without a
single Republican vote. R.I.P. and never to be resurrected — Obama’s
promised bipartisanship.”
The Daily News said Romney’s approach to fix the economy would be “stronger”
“Critically, he has tailored his policies to create jobs, jobs, jobs,” the Daily News wrote.
“The centerpieces of Romney’s plan call for spending restraint and
rewriting the Internal Revenue code to lower rates by 20 percent. He
would make up much of the lost revenue by eliminating deductions and
loopholes that have made the tax system a thicket of strangling
complexities. On its own, paring the personal and corporate rules to the
basics would catalyze business and consumer spending.”
In the end, the paper’s endorsement came down to who could better get
the country back on sound economic footing. It concluded its editorial
with:
“The presidential imperative of the times is to energize the economy and
get deficits under control to empower the working and middle classes to
again enjoy the fruits of an ascendant America.
“So the News is compelled to stand with Romney.”
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