The Back Pages: Caucus-eve edition

Very few newspapers have endorsed one candidate or another before tomorrow’s caucus. Many have opted to encourage participation rather than a particular candidate. Of the few that have made an endorsement, none have been as clear and direct as The Minnesota Daily. The student-run paper of the University of Minnesota gave a tepid nod to McCain and focused on change in endorsing Obama.

Minnesota Daily: The Case For Sen. John McCain

While we believe the war in Iraq has been a colossal mistake, McCain’s criticism of former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s strategy was early and correct, and McCain acknowledges the hard truth
that it isn’t in the United States’ or Iraq’s best interest to withdraw precipitously, leaving the country to chaos and likely genocide.

We are confident that if elected, McCain would be a president for all Americans and, though we do not agree with all his policies, he would be a great deal better than our current president.

Minnesota Daily: A real voice for change

For the past 20 years, two dynasties have controlled American politics. There were good years and years that have tested our national pride and faith in our leaders. Often, we tend to lean toward the familiar. However, we must remember it is in the unfamiliar that we find a fresh perspective of ourselves. The promise of seeing our
country and American politics in a new light is just what Obama brings, and it is just what we need.

Up on the range, The Mesabi Daily News declines to pick a favorite in either of the one-on-one contests in favor of eulogizing the recently suspended candidacy of John Edwards.

Mesabi Daily News: Edwards was an interesting candidate

Edwards was sincere, eloquent and fiery in his new more liberal persona. The 2008 Edwards seemed more real than the 2004 Edwards. And he connected well with a segment of the party that rightfully saw him as someone wanting to fight in public service for the little guy against big corporations – even though his contradictory nature again showed as he is someone who also has benefited quite well from corporate America. In the end, timing – which is so important in politics – was not a friend of Edwards.

One of the more interesting non-endorsements came from the Winona Daily News. Taking plenty of shots at the choices of Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney without mentioning any other candidates, the editorial manages to work Donald Rumsfeld, President Bush, and Sen. John Kerry into the mix.

Winona Daily News: Known knowns and known unknowns

Bless Donald Rumsfeld’s soul. We finally think we know what he’s talking about.

The former U.S. Secretary of Defense’s quotation perfectly summarizes the field of presidential contenders.

As we approach the caucuses and primaries of the Midwest states, we would urge both Democrats and Republicans to look closely at the candidates, do their own research and disregard the amount of cash any candidate has raised.

For example, there’s Democrat Hillary Clinton, who
seems quite willing to say whatever it is she thinks people want to hear. Her voting record is erratic and her campaign tactics seem to get more desperate as races get closer. What we mean is that Hillary Clinton is a politician first and foremost; principles come in a distant second.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune continues to give voice to the inner-conflicted moderate. The state’s largest paper defers its endorsement until October and instead delivers an optimistic–some would say panglossian–assessment that this is shaping up as the best of all possible elections.

Star Tribune: Super Tuesday too important to miss

This newspaper will not declare its preference for president until October, after the intraparty contests are settled and the interparty contest is well underway.

But it’s not too early to voice admiration for much of what has unfolded to date in the presidential sweepstakes. Early-state voters have narrowed both the GOP and Democratic fields to produce two lively contests that bode well for positive change in Washington.

On the Republican side, the comeback of John McCain signals that many GOP voters have grown weary of the wedge issues that George W. Bush and Karl Rove employed for divide-and-conquer politics.

McCain’s reasonable views on immigration and his lack of zealotry on social issues may still hurt him, as Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee come at him from the right. But the Arizona senator’s appeal seems to transcend those hot buttons, drawing instead from more enduring
American notions of what constitutes character and leadership.

For Minnesotans, Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s association with McCain adds to the stakes of the GOP contest. A national role for Pawlenty, long the stuff of political gossip, will begin to seem a realistic possibility
if McCain wins on Tuesday.

The winnowing of the Democratic field to the history-making twosome of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton has produced riveting and revealing political theater. Both remaining Democrats offer this nation a welcome departure from both the policies of the last eight years, and the unwritten rule that only a white male can contend for the presidency.

The Back Pages is a weekly roundup of editorial opinions on issues that face Minnesota. Look for it every Monday.