NYTimes endorses Obama, citing energy and climate issues

Articles — By forcechange on October 24, 2008 12:28 pm

The NYTimes op-ed board naturally endorsed Barack Obama today (having endorsed 13 of the last Democratic presidential candidates).  In the endorsement, the board notes “Mr. McCain could have seized the high ground on energy and the environment. Earlier in his career, he offered the first plausible bill to control America’s emissions of greenhouse gases. Now his positions are a caricature of that record: think Ms. Palin leading chants of ‘drill, baby, drill.’  Mr. Obama has endorsed some offshore drilling, but as part of a comprehensive strategy including big investments in new, clean technologies.”

And here is a cool chart that shows the history of the NYT’s presidential endorsements.  Note the quote from their endorsement of Lincoln in 1860 (a year before the outbreak of the Civil War), which I’m guessing the Times intentionally highlighted for the irony:  “Things will go on very much as they have hitherto-except that we shall have honesty and manliness instead of meanness and corruption in the Executive departments, and a decent regard for the opinions of mankind in the tone and talk of the Government on the subject of Slavery.”  [emphasis added.]