Obama: 61 Newspaper Endorsements, McCain: 16. But Does It Mean Much Anymore?

UPDATE: Former Secretary of State Colin Powell endorses Barack Obama on Meet the Press this morning.
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There was a time in America when a newspaper’s editorial endorsement of a candidate affected the way some of its readers voted. In the days before 24-hour cable news, daily tracking polls, snap surveys and the internet, many people actually waited to learn who The Daily Foghorn thought should be president or mayor or dog catcher before voting for a candidate.

I doubt that’s quite the case anymore.

For one thing, a relatively tiny percentage of Americans actually read a daily newspaper. For another, there are so many other opportunities to learn about a candidate and his or her position on various issues that whether the Daily Foghorn endorses a specific candidate – or none at all, as happened frequently in 2004 – doesn’t mean very much in terms of how people vote.

But editorial endorsements remain a valuable reflection of how the two presidential candidates are faring across the nation, not so much in terms of poll numbers but in the way that a given community’s supposedly best-informed “wise solons” feel should be entrusted with the privilege of leadership by voters.

Our friend Denis Campbell at www.VadimusPost.com painstakingly built an endorsement tote board, finding that 61 newspapers with circulation of more than 9-million readers are endorsing Obama; in 2004, 10 of these newspapers either endorsed George Bush or made no endorsement. By contrast, just 16 newspapers with a combined 1.5-million circulation are backing McCain. All of the newspapers backing McCain endorsed Bush in 2004.

Here’s Denis’ list:

BARACK OBAMA

ARKANSAS
Arkansas Times

CALIFORNIA
The Argus (Fremont)
Contra Costa Times (Walnut Creek)
Daily Review (Hayward)
The Fresno Bee
La Opinion (Los Angeles)
Los Angeles Times
The Modesto Bee
The Monterey County Herald
Oakland Tribune
The (Stockton) Record
The Sacramento Bee
San Bernardino Sun
San Francisco Chronicle
San Jose Mercury News
San Mateo County Times
Santa Cruz Sentinel
Tri-Valley Herald

COLORADO
Cortez Journal
The Denver Post
The Durango Herald
Gunnison Country Times
Ouray County Plain Dealer

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
The Washington Post

FLORIDA
The Miami Herald

GEORGIA
Atlanta Journal-Constitution

HAWAII
Honolulu Star-Bulletin

ILLINOIS
Chicago Tribune
Chicago Sun-Times
Southwest News-Herald

IOWA
The Storm Lake Times

KANSAS
Kansas City Star

MASSACHUSETTS
The Boston Globe
The Standard-Times (New Bedford)

MICHIGAN
The Muskegon Chronicle

MISSOURI
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

NEW MEXICO
Santa Fe New Mexican

NEW YORK
The New York Daily News
el Dario La Prensa

NORTH CAROLINA
Asheville Citizen-Times
Raleigh News & Observer

OHIO
Cleveland Plain-Dealer
The (Toledo) Blade
Dayton Daily News
The (Canton) Repository
Springfield News-Sun

OREGON
Mail Tribune (Medford)

PENNSYLVANIA
The Express-Times (Easton)
Philadelphia Inquirer
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

TENNESSEE
Chattanooga Times
The Commercial Appeal (Memphis)
The (Nashville) Tennessean

TEXAS
The Lufkin Daily News

UTAH
The Salt Lake Tribune

VIRGINIA
Falls Church News-Press

WASHINGTON
The Columbian
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
The Seattle Times

WEST VIRGINIA
The Charleston Gazette

WISCONSIN
The Capital Times (Madison)
Wisconsin State Journal (Madison)

JOHN McCAIN

CALIFORNIA
Napa Valley Register:
The San Francisco Examiner

COLORADO
Mountain Valley News (Cedaredge):
The Daily Sentinel (Grand Junction)
The Pueblo Chieftain

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
The Washington DC Examiner

MARYLAND
The Baltimore Examiner

MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Herald
The (Lowell) Sun

NEW HAMPSHIRE
Foster’s Daily Democrat
Union Leader (Manchester)

NEW YORK
New York Post

OHIO
The (Findlay) Courier

TEXAS
Amarillo Globe-News

WASHINGTON
(Spokane) Spokesman-Review

WEST VIRGINIA
Wheeling News-Register