More newspapers endorse John McCain

The Associated Press has been running highlights of newspaper endorsements from across the country. Here is a sampling of endorsements for John McCain:

The Cincinnati Enquirer:

This is a time for a president with deep experience and proven character, a president who thrives in the great, good, honest middle ground in which most Americans live, a president forthright enough to tell us what we'd rather not hear, a president with the courage to follow his convictions and the grit to persevere.

This is Sen. John McCain's time. ...

McCain offers up his compelling biography as a war hero, his admirable candor and his centrist independence in an increasingly polarized political environment. A McCain administration would chart a wiser course on the economy than one led by his Democratic opponent, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois. McCain's campaign has recently found a sharp focus on economic and tax issues, allowing voters to draw clear distinctions with policies Obama would pursue.

And as president, McCain would fill the need for some semblance of partisan balance in Washington, keeping what promises to be a more heavily Democratic Congress from running roughshod on business policy, unions, free trade, health care and more. ...

Obama's record lies to the left of most Americans, yet he is running as a centrist who can reconcile a range of viewpoints. But can we have confidence he will govern from the middle? Will he even need to, or be able to, with a Congress heavily controlled by Democrats, perhaps with a filibuster-proof Senate?

The Eagle-Tribune of Lawrence, Mass.:

On domestic matters, there are fundamental philosophical differences between McCain and his opponent, Democrat Barack Obama. In simplest terms, McCain stands for using government policy to help people make their own way in the world. Obama wants to take from those who have achieved success and give to those who have not in his own words, to "spread the wealth around."

Obama's tax proposals would raise taxes on those with incomes over $250,000. Those people, too often derided as "the rich," are the ones creating the jobs many of the rest of us need to earn our daily bread.

It is important to note here the significance of Obama's candidacy, the first credible run at the presidency by an African American. That alone is an important change for our country, one for which Obama should be congratulated. But we ask voters to neither support nor reject Obama on those grounds alone.

The Arizona Republic:

Regarding foreign policy, no contemporary American statesman is more prepared than McCain to assume the mantles of first diplomat and commander in chief. In the tradition of Harry S. Truman, McCain already has demonstrated a willingness to let the buck of responsibility stop at his desk.

No one elected McCain to stand virtually alone against three administrations over their use of power overseas , against President Reagan's ill-fated decision to send Marines to Lebanon in 1983; against President Clinton's decision to send U.S. troops to Somalia in 1993; and against President George W. Bush's decision 10 years later to send insufficient troops to Iraq. He fought Republicans and Democrats over irresponsibly sending troops into harm's way, and he fought Republicans over their equally irresponsible refusal to send enough troops to do the job. In all three instances, history has proved (too often tragically) that McCain's judgment was right.

Even McCain mischaracterizes his noble willingness to stand up and stand alone. He contends it is the "maverick" in him. Well, he's wrong about that. It is the leader in him.

In truth, the son and grandson of war admirals was never a good fit for the go-along, get-along comity of the U.S. Senate. The nation simply has not had an opportunity to elect a president this well prepared , and this willing, to be a world leader since Dwight Eisenhower.

The New Era in Lancaster, Pa.:

The question for voters is this: Who between the two candidates is most likely to bring about meaningful change? Since we don't have a crystal ball, the next best indicator is the candidates' records. And by most any objective standard, John McCain's record of standing up against the special interests — and his own party when he felt it was the right thing to do — suggests he is more likely to break from the Washington that many Americans have come to disdain (Congress' approval is, what, 10 percent?).

McCain's opponent, Barack Obama, on the other hand, is a young and gifted orator with a thin resume, unimpressive legislative record and scant history of bipartisanship. He is quite the politician's politician. Obama's real problem, though, is in the direction he would take the country.