by Jill Zuckman
Manchester, N.H. – And the love continues for Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who has been attracting overflow, standing-room-only, not-enough-chairs-for-everyone crowds throughout the state this weekend.
Today, the Nashua Telegraph endorsed him. Yesterday, he won the Concord Monitor’s backing. Not to be outdone, the New Hampshire Union Leader, which endorsed him earlier, compared McCain to Ronald Reagan, a hero of the conservative movement.
Meanwhile, Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) snagged an important imprimatur today from the influential Concord Monitor, which said her “unique combination of smarts, experience and toughness makes her the best choice to win the November election and truly get things done.”
The Monitor praised the entire Democratic field, but said she has “the right experience, the right agenda and the know-how to lead the country back to respect on the world stage and meaningful progress on long-neglected problems.”
Yet it is on the Republican side where the endorsement game is most stark. Twenty-six newspapers in the state have now chosen to back McCain compared to zero for his closest rival, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
“At a time when some candidates present themselves to voters as something they haven’t always been, we find the Arizona senator to be the genuine article,” wrote the Telegraph, which first endorsed him in 2000. “You might not always agree with his answers, but you won’t leave a conversation wondering where he stands.”And the conservative Union Leader continued its campaign to boost McCain’s prospects among voters – particularly Republicans.
“No candidate in this race is a pure Reaganite. Mitt Romney claims to be one, but we have our doubts. What we see in Romney does not remind us of Ronald Reagan,” said the Union Leader. “What we see in John McCain does. McCain is a leader of the Reagan school. He will fight for conservative ideals while attempting to bring Democrats into the fold.”
Still, Romney does have a defender. The National Review, which endorsed him to be the Republican nominee, complained that the newspaper is employing a double standard. Each time Romney changes a position “it is a damnable flip-flop.” McCain, on the other hand, can change his positions “without a disparaging word.”
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“The Union Leader’s advocacy of John McCain has become so fierce and lopsided that it has practically transformed itself into a pro-McCain 527 organization,” wrote The National Review. “Voters who hold flip-flops against politicians, however, should be warned: McCain is every bit as much of one as Romney is, and all the bile of New Hampshire’s editorialists cannot change the fact.”