The New York Daily News, the country’s fifth largest newspaper, endorsed Mitt Romney on Sunday, joining the ranks of more than a dozen papers that have turned away from Barack Obama after endorsing his candidacy in 2008.
The paper's endorsement came as a surprise: the News has a staunchly Democratic editorial viewpoint. The Daily News is also owned by one of the country's most respected and influential Democrats, Mort Zuckerman, the billionaire real estate mogul.
But the New York daily staked its arguments against Obama not on politics but the economy, charging that President Obama’s promises went unfulfilled.
“Revival of the U.S. as a land of opportunity and upward mobility is the central challenge facing the next president,” the paper wrote. “The question for Americans: Who is more likely to accomplish the mission — Barack Obama or Mitt Romney?”
“Four years ago, the Daily News endorsed Obama, seeing a historic figure whose intelligence, political skills and empathy with common folk positioned him to build on the small practical experience he would bring to the world’s toughest job. We valued Obama’s pledge to govern with bold pragmatism and bipartisanship. The hopes of those days went unfulfilled.
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