New York Times Editorial, October 17
"Over the last year we have come to know John Kerry as more than just an alternative to the status quo ... We have been impressed with [his] wide knowledge and clear thinking [and] he is blessedly willing to re-evaluate ... when conditions change ...
"We look back on the past four years with hearts nearly breaking, both for lives unnecessarily lost and for the opportunities so casually wasted. Time and again, history invited President George Bush to play a heroic role, and time and again he chose the wrong course ... Voting for president is a leap of faith ... All that citizens can do is mix guess-work and hope examining what the candidates have done in the past, their apparent priorities and their general character. It's on these grounds that we enthusiastically endorse John Kerry for president."
Chicago TribuneEditorial, October 17
"Mr Bush's sense of a president's duty to defend America is wider in scope than Mr Kerry's, more ambitious in its tactics, more prone, frankly, to yield both casualties and lasting results. This is the stark difference on which American voters should choose a president.
"There is much the current president could have done differently over the last four years. There are lessons he needs to have learned ... But for his resoluteness on the defining challenge of our age ... the Chicago Tribune urges the re-election of George Bush as president."
Boston GlobeEditorial, October 17
"[Some] voters ... may have been surprised by the person they saw in the three televised [presidential] debates. Knowledgeable, pragmatic, with an agile, focused mind - Mr Kerry was the same man in all three appearances.
"Arthur Schlesinger Jr, the presidential historian, was asked recently ... whether he saw any comparisons between Mr Kerry and John Kennedy, in whose administration Mr Schlesinger served ... He said he found the two men 'similar in that they prove politicians can be intellectuals'. Despite the general debasement of American politics, this is still a desirable trait in a president ...
"Mr Kerry is best suited to heal our painful rifts now - not just with the community of nations but within this nation, rent by social, ideological, economic, and religious divisions. These sap the strength of America. We are confident a Kerry presidency will restore both unity and strength."
Dallas Morning NewsEditorial, October 17
"Four years ago, when the world was much simpler, Mr Bush sought the presidency, claiming that he had 'a charge to keep'. Having been tempered by the most eventful and consequential four years served by any US president since Franklin D Roosevelt's third term (1941-45), Mr Bush has earned the right to hold firm to his charge for another term ...
"The nation can count on Mr Bush to hang tough, just like Ronald Reagan during the worst moments of the cold war. And, as Reagan did in his second term, Mr Bush may be able to leverage his strength through creative diplomacy, using it to create a more peaceful and ordered world ... This is not the time for Americans to abandon their president."
Kansas City StarEditorial, October 18
"Terrorism and conflicts abroad have [dominated] the presidential campaign. But many Americans are also concerned about job security, healthcare and their children's futures. Mr Bush has failed to deal effectively with these important national problems, and even made matters worse in cases such as the runaway budget deficits. The country cannot afford four more years of such misguided leadership ...
"Mr Bush and Dick Cheney, the vice president, don't listen to people outside their inner circle. They don't learn from the past, and they don't reverse their mistakes. They took office after the most controversial election in US history, but made no attempt to unite the nation. John Kerry presents hope for friendlier relations at home and abroad."
Indianapolis StarEditorial, October 17
"This is not a time to take a risk on untested and poorly defined leadership. It is not the time to change course on the economy. It is not the time for new, expansive and expensive government programmes and regulations. It is time for experience and resolve, which is why Mr Bush should be re-elected for a second term. Without a re-election facing him, the president can move to do those things he said he would do in his first presidential campaign."
Tampa TribuneEditorial, October 17
"We are unable to endorse Mr Bush for re-election because of his mishandling of the war in Iraq, his record deficit spending, his assault on open government and his failed promise to be a 'uniter not a divider' within the US and the world. Neither can we endorse Mr Kerry, whose undistinguished Senate record stands at odds with our conservative principles and whose positions on the Iraq war ... have been difficult to distinguish ...
"The Tribune has endorsed a Republican for president ever since ... 1952, with one exception [Barry Goldwater in 1964]. Like the country, this editorial board finds itself deeply divided about the president's prosecution of the war and his indifference to federal spending."
