Newspaper editorial boards across the land are endorsing candidates left and right as Election Day is right around the corner. Regarding the Presidential race, a number of endorsement have been made for both Obama and McCain but all of the noteworthy ones have all gone to Obama. These news making endorsements are interesting for a few reasons, like history, personality and geography, and I’ll illustrate three that have gone Obama’s way.
First there is the history department. How does the fact that the Chicago Tribune has endorsed a Democrat for the first time in its paper’s history sound? In doing so, the paper said Obama is the “strongest candidate to address the nation’s economic woes and lead us through a perilous time and restore in us a common sense of national purpose.” The fact that this paper endorsed Obama is huge. The paper’s founder in fact helped found the GOP. The paper ha been around for 161 years and you would have thought they would have endorsed at least one Dem in that time but the answer is no – Barack is the first and their endorsement is a powerful one.
Next there is the personality department. If a major Democrat endorsed McCain, it would be news and vice versa. So, if you didn’t know by now Colin Powell said he was voting for Obama last week on “Meet the Press.” His reasons were sound, incredibly detailed, well thought out and very tough with which to argue. I just sat back and marveled at how damning this must have been to McCain. Not what you want people talking about, that’s for sure.
Last, regarding geography, people all over the nation are paying attention to the endorsements that come from different regions of the land. One such regional endorsement especially caught my eye tonight: the Anchorage Daily News, Alaska’s largest and most read newspaper, has endorsed Barack Obama for President. Among the reasons, it stated in its editorial:

Gov. Palin’s nomination clearly alters the landscape for Alaskans as we survey this race for the presidency — but it does not overwhelm all other judgment. The election, after all is said and done, is not about Sarah Palin, and our sober view is that her running mate, Sen. John McCain, is the wrong choice for president at this critical time for our nation.

Election day is only 9 days away and so far, to quote the Dead, “What a long strange trip its been.” I cannot wait to see how it all shakes out. I’m hopefully for a true change and for my daughter’s future. I’m still nervous, polls and all, and will be until the morning of November 5th when I truly know how this whole thing has turned out.