Most of those commenting on the Des Moines Register endorsement are smarter than the editorial board

[madaboutharry]

The Des Moines Register: A Gannett Corporation

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20121027/OPINION03/121026026/The-Register-endorsement-Mitt-Romney-offers-a-fresh-economic-vision?Frontpage

[Mass]

1. Well, seems their endorsement is more a kiss of death than of success.

In 23 endorsements, only 9 won (10 if you count Gore).

[LisaL]

2. There you go.

There is a silver lining in everything.

[bigtree]

3. I've never seen such a watery load of crap

. . . it's like the Bush endorsements of the past.

[Tutonic]

4. Gannet Corporation tells you all that is important.

He that controls the money bag controls the endorsement. Hopefully, those directors were wined and dined sufficiently before signing over their rights. Shameful mark against this newspaper.

[LTR]

11. I assumed Gannett was pretty centrist

A holdover from the Al Neuharth days. When he took over, he made it a point to sweep out the stodgy conservative image and stuffy old white guys. Employed women and minorities in high positions and added them to the boardroom, as he wanted the corporate makeup to resemble the country in general. All of this is why USA Today is.written in such a middle-of-the-road style.

Gannett is certainly not right wing like some other publishers out there, like Tribune, News Corp and a few others.

[Inspired]

5. I know. Fresh economic vision?

I'm stunned.

[LisaL]

6. Well maybe they can explain to us what this vision is.

[craigmatic]

7. Most editorial boards are conservative leaning except for a few papers. Really if mittens wasn't

such a flip flopper he'd have more paper endorsements but conservatives like consistency.

[PCIntern]

8. Most of their endorsements have been Dem over the decades...

They endorsed Kerry and Obama...must have been some arguments in the room.

Meanwhile, to quote my father of blessed memory: Fuck 'em

[John2]

9. I

cannot believe what the newspaper just did. This is an important election and they just lied to their readers. What is at stake in this election involves the U.S. Supreme Court and women's rights to choose. Their claim is so bogus about Romney's success in Massachusetts and they also gave credit to Romney for health care in Massachusetts as an example while Romney promised to repeal Obama care. They gave Romney credit for flip flopping to the middle? They mentioned nothing about foreign Policy also. They gave Obama credit for the Stimulus Bill which they admitted was positive and much needed but also put all the blame on him and not the obstructionist Republican Congress which included Paul Ryan for the stagnation. They also threw out the real Romney on the tape about the 47 percent. They mentioned nothing about Romney's offshore accounts with investments in China, Russia and Iran. They also mentioned nothing about how the company he founded engineered outsourcing such as the Sensata company attributed to Bain. Romney is going to cut Education and send it to the States which means the states will have to raise taxes. They ultimately backed an extremist right wing agenda by claiming Romney has a moderate agenda. Talk about someone in wolves clothing. The main point of their argument was medicare and medicaid was draining the Deficit while ignoring two wars and existing Bush tax cuts. So cutting more taxes across the Board, and building up the military while deregulating Wall street is a recipe for cutting the deficit? They also totally ignored Obama saving the Auto Industry when Romney said let Detroit go bankrupt.

[kiranon]

10. Agree. With its endorsement of Romney, the DMR becomes irrelevant.

The DMR is just another print newspaper that won't exist much longer. Obama is the future.

[annabanana]

13. What YOU said!. . . AND

Welcome to DU!

[Strelnikov_]

12. They have been in the tank for the Reich the whole cycle

Like just the other day.

Headline for a Romney article was along the lines of "This is what momentum looks like".

Headline for Obama article was along the lines of "Sluggish economy dogs President".

[flamingdem]

14. Fineman backs off on Twitter

Howard Fineman ?@howardfineman

Anger in my corner of Twittersphere cuz i said DM Reg Mitt endorsement bad news for Obama. It's' not fatal, but he needs all mo' he can get.

[progressivebydesign]

17. good I tweeted him a few good ones a little while ago! nt

[flamingdem]

18. that cute use of cuz and twittersphere won't save him

from being known as an assclown!

glad you did that

[mainer]

15. Didn't I predict this?

After their stupid editorial whine about Obama's "off the record" remarks, I KNEW it was their way of justifying their upcoming endorsement of Romney.

[progressivebydesign]

16. to be fair, in the endorsement it sounds like the actual JOURNALISTS fought this...

no doubt the suits prevailed. It was not a slam dunk by any means, but the Publisher gets the last word on these... and Gannett is a huge corporation that ALSO owns USA Today.

[daligirl519]

19. This is all about Gannett. . .

They also own the traditionally democratic Nashville Tennessean, which also endorsed Romney. They lost a large number of subscribers over it including my entire extended family.