The Detroit News' endorsement of an ineffective and unprepared team (they said it)

"McCain best choice for uncertain times" the editorial headline declares in the Oct. 23 edition of Detroit News. The contents within the endorsement, however, provide more questions than answers. What were they thinking?

"We [Detroit News editorial board] readily acknowledge that McCain has run a distressingly ineffective presidential campaign. He has failed to find his voice on the campaign trail, rarely revealing the appealing personal characteristics and refreshing political views that caused us to endorse him in Michigan's Republican primary in January."

If the Senator was not able to run an effective campaign, as the News' own board correctly notes, what makes them so sure something would be different for Sen. McCain within the White House?

"His selection of Alaskan Gov. Sarah Palin as his running-mate also gives us pause. Palin is a promising governor and has excited the Republican base, but she is clearly not prepared for the role she was chosen to play and is costing McCain support he might have expected from undecided voters who harbor doubts about the seasoning of Democrat Barack Obama."

I find it troubling that the News endorsed the McCain-Palin ticket after yet another correct assumption - - this one about Gov. Palin and the many "pauses" she has given to all types of voters. In my opinion, voters across the U.S. got a clear indication of Sen. Obama and his collective calm and "seasoning" with his relatively well-received reaction to the recent Wall St. melt-down, on top of the already slow economy. I wonder if the crisis-to-crisis, nonstrategic approach taken by the McCain campaign is what the News' leaders believe we as a nation need.

The closing sentence, "John McCain has what it takes to lead America in these very uncertain times," is most troubling to me. If by "has what it takes" means we will have a McCain administration as ineffective as the McCain-Palin campaign; on top of the ill-prepared, polarizing semi-celebrity that is Gov. Palin next-in-line leading us in these uncertain times - - I sure hope we as voters get find some certainty by Nov. 4 and support Sen. Obama for President.

Source: "Decision 2008: Endorsement." The Detroit News; Oct. 23, 2008. Available (as of 10-26-08): http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081023/OPINION01/810230337/1007/OPINION

Thanks, Ing, for posting the exchanges to Faxham...