The Tennessean Breaks with Obama, Endorses Romney
Breaking with a long tradition of endorsing Democratic candidates for president, The Tennessean (the state of Tennessee's largest daily newspaper) endorsed Mitt Romney today. The normally left-leaning editorial page cited Obama's ram-rod approach to healthcare reform and inability to control spending as reasons to deny the president a second term.
For all his efforts, ranging from the stimulus package to green-energy development, to bring us out of recession, he has never found the key. He has generally made poor choices of the people needed to get the job done, such as Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. And the number of jobs created during his term simply has not kept up with demand.
The paper mentioned Romney's competent record as governor of Massachusetts, and called on Romney to implement a serious debt-reduction plan and to "reunite America" with a more productive and bi-partisan approach to governing than Obama took during his four years in office.
The Tennessean, based in Nashville, is as faithfully Democratic as they come. In 2008 the paper endorsed Barack Obama. In 2004, it endorsed John Kerry. In 2000, it endorsed Al Gore. And...well, you get the picture.
Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit (a fellow Tennessean) took note a short time ago of this surprising Republican endorsement from "Al Gore's newspaper."(Gore worked for the paper as a young man and still has a home here in Nashville.)
Some long-time Democrats, who voted for Obama in 2008, are looking at the state of this country right now and they simply cannot risk another four years. In the debates, Romney has emerged in the nation's consciousness as a viable and sensible alternative. As The Tennessean headline put it, for them, it is "Time for Another Change."
Could this endorsement mark the emergence of "the Romney Democrats?"
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Jun '12
Re: The Tennessean Breaks with Obama, Endorses Romney
More like the resurgence of the Reagan Democrats, now renamed the Romney Democrats.
And yes, it could. It probably does, in fact.
But the gloom-and-doom crowd will still insist that Obama is going to win.
Mar '11
Re: The Tennessean Breaks with Obama, Endorses Romney
Is this the first evidence that Rob's prediction in "Next Week's Big Story" was correct?
Feb '11
Re: The Tennessean Breaks with Obama, Endorses Romney
Has Tennessee started voting yet?
Dec '10
Re: The Tennessean Breaks with Obama, Endorses Romney
Israel, early voting started here yesterday. The endorsement comes at a perfect time.
Re: The Tennessean Breaks with Obama, Endorses Romney
Obama is a fad, not a president. I think the fad is over.
Jun '12
Re: The Tennessean Breaks with Obama, Endorses Romney
That's the line of the day, right there.
Feb '11
Re: The Tennessean Breaks with Obama, Endorses Romney
I keep thinking of a 15-second commercial. Obama is speaking at the beginning and his voice begins to fade. Fading in is the voice of an operatic soprano singing Wagner or some such who gets louder and louder. On screen, it flashes "Obama is over" then "So over". Show it but once -- on Monday Night Football the day before the election.
Apr '11
Re: The Tennessean Breaks with Obama, Endorses Romney
Does this aria make me sound fat?
Hang On
I keep thinking of a 15-second commercial. Obama is speaking at the beginning and his voice begins to fade. Fading in is the voice of an operatic soprano singing Wagner or some such who gets louder and louder. On screen, it flashes "Obama is over" then "So over". Show it but once -- on Monday Night Football the day before the election. · 1 minute ago
Aug '10
Re: The Tennessean Breaks with Obama, Endorses Romney
Gallup has Romney up 52%-45% and their daily tracking poll shows an unbroken line up for Romney in the past week.
The fat lady is warming up!
Jan '11
Re: The Tennessean Breaks with Obama, Endorses Romney
A nice endorsement from the Tennessean.
However, whenever I hear a Democrat say "bi-partisan" I reach for my wallet - to make sure the Democrat doesn't steal it.
Of course, I'm quite reasonable in these "reaching" matters. I'm all for reaching "across the aisle," so long as Democrats are doing the all the reaching.
You see, I want the next Democrat minority leader of the House of Representatives to be known as "The Bob Michel of the 21st Century."
As I mentioned in another context, the function of the Democrat Party should be to try, as unsuccessfully we conservatives can manage, to slow down but not stop the diminution of the federal government.
Jul '12
Re: The Tennessean Breaks with Obama, Endorses Romney
What an awful endorsement. It manages to be cynical, prescriptive and negative all at once. But I guess I shouldn't worry too much about how they arrived at what I believe is a sensible decision.
Feb '11
Re: The Tennessean Breaks with Obama, Endorses Romney
Hang On
I keep thinking of a 15-second commercial. Obama is speaking at the beginning and his voice begins to fade. Fading in is the voice of an operatic soprano singing Wagner or some such who gets louder and louder. On screen, it flashes "Obama is over" then "So over". Show it but once -- on Monday Night Football the day before the election. · 23 minutes ago
Legal Insurrection (who for some reason is not listed in Ricochet's "Sites We Like") has begun using the hashtag #TheEnd.
Edited on October 18, 2012 at 9:14pmAug '11
Re: The Tennessean Breaks with Obama, Endorses Romney
That makes my heart glad. Can we get some more like that!
Sep '12
Re: The Tennessean Breaks with Obama, Endorses Romney
Not Wagner! Too racist.
Hang On
I keep thinking of a 15-second commercial. Obama is speaking at the beginning and his voice begins to fade. Fading in is the voice of an operatic soprano singing Wagner or some such who gets louder and louder. On screen, it flashes "Obama is over" then "So over". Show it but once -- on Monday Night Football the day before the election. · 35 minutes ago
Re: The Tennessean Breaks with Obama, Endorses Romney
That does it, Nashville. You have found a way to make me love you more.
May '10
Re: The Tennessean Breaks with Obama, Endorses Romney
Meh, I don't know if this is something to get excited about. If memory serves, those Dem endorsements didn't help take the state. It's been reliably republican for a while. Nashville has enjoyed a big economic boom in recent years becoming a hub of the healthcare industry. Obamacare will hit that industry and the region hard. Even the folks at The Tennessean know which side their bread is buttered. All politics is local.
Jul '12
Re: The Tennessean Breaks with Obama, Endorses Romney
Hang On
I keep thinking of a 15-second commercial. Obama is speaking at the beginning and his voice begins to fade. Fading in is the voice of an operatic soprano singing Wagner or some such who gets louder and louder. On screen, it flashes "Obama is over" then "So over". Show it but once -- on Monday Night Football the day before the election. · 1 hour ago
Of course you meant "the voice of a fat operatic soprano," right? It has to be a fat lady or it won't work. And I would leave it at "It's over."
Re: The Tennessean Breaks with Obama, Endorses Romney
All true. Tennessee hasn't gone for a Democrat in a presidential election since Clinton/Gore '96 (remember all the caterwauling about how Gore would have won the 2000 election if he had just carried his home state?). But I don't think the point here is electoral implications (how many people vote for president based on editorial endorsements, anyway?). It's that even a newspaper that has spent over a decade going against the grain of local politics (last I checked, Williamson County -- the Nashville suburbs -- was rivaling Orange County as the most GOP friendly locale in the nation) just doesn't find it worth the candle this time. The edifice seems to be crumbling.
Jan '12
Re: The Tennessean Breaks with Obama, Endorses Romney
Israel, we began voting yesterday, October 17th.
I am sitting in my office in Nashville and just saw Nathan's note about the Tennessean's endorsement of Romney. I am floored. That newspaper is locked in a leftward tilt - so much so that I stopped reading that rag to reduce my blood pressure. Is Prof. Rahe correct? Is this going to be a rout of Obama and America's 21st century flirtation with socialism? I'm beginning to let myself hope.
Looking at the above remarks by Troy and others, I comment that this is more of an indication of the trend than an influence on the outcome. However, it could discourage Democrat voters and affect down ballot elections.
Edited on October 18, 2012 at 11:34pmDec '11
Re: The Tennessean Breaks with Obama, Endorses Romney
I, too, am shocked at the endorsement. As a Vandy intern at the Tennesseanean during college, I would never have seen this one coming. (As a matter of fact, I, as a suspiciously conservative student, was limited to the 'sports beat,' which of course was fine with me!)
Truly, wonders never cease.