Nevada Newspaper's Nose-Holding Obama Endorsement

By Marc Sheppard

In what must be the strangest endorsement of at least this campaign cycle, Nevada's largest circulating daily newspaper has just given the nod to Barack Obama as the Democratic candidate for president. But there's neither cause for cheer nor any potential clever campaign ad snippets to be found in this little gem.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal begins by disqualifying the other two frontrunners, beginning with Hillary, whom they refer to as "a one-term-plus-a-year senator whose lackluster legislative record rivals Sen. Obama's." After blasting her alleged experience as nothing more than that of "witness and enabler during her husband's presidential terms," they decide to get tough:

"For starters, imagine Sen. Clinton and ‘co-president; Bill Clinton invited onto a ‘This is Your Life' talk show where they're joined by Juanita Broaddrick, Kathleen Willey, Paula Jones, Gennifer Flowers and Monica Lewinsky.

And that's before we even get around to a HillaryCare plan that could have sent you to jail for offering to pay your doctor in cash to ‘get to the head of the line.'"

Ouch.

By contrast, the former senator from North Carolina gets the kid gloves treatment:

"Meanwhile, John Edwards' anti-capitalist populism is not in this country's long-term best interests."

All this would appear to be good news for Obama, right? Well, not quite.

The Journal continues:

"Is Barack Obama, then, the ideal Democratic candidate for president? Hardly. His policy recommendations -- when he can be convinced to get any more specific than ‘I represent change' -- are the opposite of ‘change.' They're old-line, welfare-state solutions that haven't spent enough time in the microwave to appear even superficially appetizing."

After pointing out how Obama's youth and lack of "real-world experience" render him ill-equipped to stand up to bad advice during national crises, they offer these rousing words of support: [my emphasis]

"But Barack Obama is, at least, likeable. He is a good enough orator that there is no need to cringe when he dares to speak off the cuff. He is a good politician, in the non-insulting sense that he knows how to speak to individual Americans and give them the feeling he cares about their concerns."

Likeable? He's inexperienced and his policies stink, but he sure can communicate those fetid ideas better than Dubya. Again, not likely that team Obama will be sourcing any TV ad quotes from this piece anytime soon.

Somehow the slogan "Obama - Hey, At Least He's Likeable" doesn't exactly inspire.