Startling Stat: At Least 46 Papers That Endorsed Bush in 2004 Have Now Switched to Obama

[DeepModem Mom]

Source: Editor&Publisher

NEW YORK As the Obama-Biden ticket continues to lead in daily newspaper endorsements by roughly 220 to 90, what is most startling is the Democratic ticket winning over so many editorial boards that backed President Bush in 2004.

Obama has picked up at least 46 switchers -- including the Chicago Tribune and three of the top dailies in Texas -- and we suspect the total is much higher as we have not identified how every paper decided in 2004. Some have revealed they have never backed a Democrat for president, or at least for the past several decades or 100 years (the Joplin Globe in Missouri that to declare the latter).

The McCain-Palin ticket remains stuck at four switchers so far.

In addition, many papers that backed Bush in 2004 (such as the Indianapolis Star) are sitting out the race this year....

Read more: http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003880410

[BlooInBloo]

1. Starting to look like the projected electoral vote.

[4lbs]

2. How many of those 90 for McCain are MAJOR newspapers? I'd think most of them are puny ones with

circulations of less than 50,000.

[mwb970]

6. They're newspapers from "Real America".

Like the Monkey's Eyebrow Times and the Podunk Hollow Gazette.

[insidejoke]

3. I'm Going to Get in Trouble for This...

But wikipedia actually has a fairly comprehensive (and constantly updated) list of each candidate's newspaper endorsements: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newspaper_endorsements_in_the_United_States_presidential_election,_2008

When you add together the total circulation of all the daily and weekly papers along with all the magazines, the papers and magazines endorsing Obama have almost four times the circulation that those endorsing McCain have. I think that's pretty telling.

[DeepModem Mom]

4. Wow! Thanks, insidejoke -- and welcome to DU!!!

[Dhalgren]

7. Why would you get in trouble for sharing information?

That was a good find and is much appreciated. Who would give you a hard time for being helpful?

:shrug:

[flying_wahini]

8. welcome to DU - a great! bunch of people!

and I'm not just saying that.....

we really are wonderful!

[dixiegrrrrl]

9. Welcome to DU, and thanks for the link.

:hi:

[insidejoke]

10. I Just Meant "Trouble"...

...because it's a wikipedia link, and I've actually been reading DU since early 2003, but I rarely participate.

Thanks!

[machI]

5. Rats jumping ship. This is going to be a landslide. n/t

[karynnj]

11. This is great - especially as 2004 represented a huge shift to Kerry

The transition matrix shows that Bush lost a large share of his 2000 endorsements. (If you go down the Bush column, of the 136 Bush endorsements, 43 went to Kerry. - In 2000, Bush had a hefty majority of endorsements, in 2004, Kerry had a slight majority, now there is a tremendous majority for Obama. This is great.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newspaper_endorsements_in_the_United_States_presidential_election,_2004