COMM 337: Trib makes history, endorses Obama

For the first time in its 171-year history, The Chicago Tribune has endorsed a Democrat for president. The editorial is well written, with a sense of history one doesn't ordinarily see in daily newspapers, and we'll read it in class.

In Friday's editions, the Trib's editorial board said U.S. Sen Barack Obama "is ready" to change the way we do politics and government in this country. The endorsement couldn't be stronger:

However this election turns out, it will dramatically advance America's slow progress toward equality and inclusion. It took Abraham Lincoln's extraordinary courage in the Civil War to get us here. It took an epic battle to secure women the right to vote. It took the perseverance of the civil rights movement. Now we have an election in which we will choose the first African-American president . . . or the first female vice president.

In recent weeks it has been easy to lose sight of this history in the making. Americans are focused on the greatest threat to the world economic system in 80 years. They feel a personal vulnerability the likes of which they haven't experienced since Sept. 11, 2001. It's a different kind of vulnerability. Unlike Sept. 11, the economic threat hasn't forged a common bond in this nation. It has fed anger, fear and mistrust.

On Nov. 4 we're going to elect a president to lead us through a perilous time and restore in us a common sense of national purpose.

The strongest candidate to do that is Sen. Barack Obama. The Tribune is proud to endorse him today for president of the United States.

This endorsement is a historic occasion, and the Trib's editorial board was aware of that history.

If you heard a low rumbling noise to the north of us Friday, it was Chicago Tribune founder Joseph Medill spinning in his grave. Medill is rightly considered one of the founders of the Illinois Republican Party. He helped Abraham Lincoln write speeches and plan strategy for the Lincoln-Douglas debates in 1858, and till now his newspaper always endorsed Republicans. Even when it couldn't bring itself to endorse the party's nominee, it edorsed maverick Republicans.

So Friday's endorsement is a historic occasion, and the Trib's editorial board was aware of that:

The Tribune in its earliest days took up the abolition of slavery and linked itself to a powerful force for that cause--the Republican Party. The Tribune's first great leader, Joseph Medill, was a founder of the GOP. The editorial page has been a proponent of conservative principles. It believes that government has to serve people honestly and efficiently.

With that in mind, in 1872 we endorsed Horace Greeley, who ran as an independent against the corrupt administration of Republican President Ulysses S. Grant. (Greeley was later endorsed by the Democrats.) In 1912 we endorsed Theodore Roosevelt, who ran as the Progressive Party candidate against Republican President William Howard Taft.

The Tribune's decisions then were driven by outrage at inept and corrupt business and political leaders.

We see parallels today.

But the editorial said said the Trib was disappointed in Republican John McCain's choice of an unqualified vice presidential candidate and the tone of his campaign -- especially at a time of great danger and opportunity. It said Obama "would govern as much more of a pragmatic centrist than many people expect," and it returned to its historical theme at the end:

Obama is deeply grounded in the best aspirations of this country, and we need to return to those aspirations. He has had the character and the will to achieve great things despite the obstacles that he faced as an unprivileged black man in the U.S.

He has risen with his honor, grace and civility intact. He has the intelligence to understand the grave economic and national security risks that face us, to listen to good advice and make careful decisions.

When Obama said at the 2004 Democratic Convention that we weren't a nation of red states and blue states, he spoke of union the way Abraham Lincoln did.

It may have seemed audacious for Obama to start his campaign in Springfield, invoking Lincoln. We think, given the opportunity to hold this nation's most powerful office, he will prove it wasn't so audacious after all. We are proud to add Barack Obama's name to Lincoln's in the list of people the Tribune has endorsed for president of the United States.