Today’s editorial headline in the Orlando Sentinel:
Our Orlando Sentinel endorsement for president in 2020: Not Donald Trump
This is a big deal.
The Sentinel was founded 143 years ago, and it’s grown in to one of Florida’s largest papers. More noticeably, the Sentinel is no left-leaning liberal MSM rag; on the contrary, it’s fairly well-known for its conservative stance on almost every candidate, and almost every issue. And that’s not my opinion; the paper admits as much. From today’s editorial:
This newspaper has a history of presidential appointments favoring Republicans starting in the mid-20th century. Except for Lyndon Johnson in 1964, the Sentinel backed Republican presidential nominees from 1952 through 2004, when we recommended John Kerry over another four years of George W. Bush.
So: today’s editorial is particularly poignant, especially given that Trump will be holding his first “official” re-election rally of the 2020 campaign in Orlando this very day. I obviously can’t print much of it here due to Fair Use laws, but a few highlights (all emphasis mine):
Donald Trump is in Orlando to announce the kickoff of his re-election campaign.
We’re here to announce our endorsement for president in 2020, or, at least, who we’re not endorsing: Donald Trump.
Some readers will wonder how we could possibly eliminate a candidate so far before an election, and before knowing the identity of his opponent.
Because there’s no point pretending we would ever recommend that readers vote for Trump.
After 2½ years we’ve seen enough.
Ouch. But please, do continue:
He blames House Democrats because casting blame is Trump’s forte. But Republicans controlled the House and the Senate for two full years. That seemed like an ideal time to fix what the president believes ails our immigration laws.
Even with Democrats now controlling the House, where is Trump’s much-touted deal-making mojo, an attribute he campaigned on?
Indeed. But that’s not even the good stuff. The editorial goes on for several dozen paragraphs outlining—with hyperlinks—the paper’s reasoning. They delve into his unprecedented history of lies; his corruption; his pettiness, his lowering of America’s standing in the world; his groveling to dictators; his inability to negotiate or accomplish anything; his lack of financial policy; and so on.
I really wish I could post more, but I highly recommend that you read the editorial yourself. And as you do, keep in mind these two things:
- The general election isn’t for another 500 days or so, and there’s nothing on the horizon that’s going to make things better for Trump between now and then.
- The Sentinel is, again, a conservative paper. Let’s see what some of the more liberal ones have to say.
The editorial closes with this final thought:
The nation must endure another 1½ years of Trump. But it needn’t suffer another four beyond that.
We can do better. We have to do better.
When they’re right, they’re right.