I’ve been off-line the last few days enjoying a professional meeting in New Orleans. It was a three-day break almost completely void of following the election — which honestly was really nice!!!
So I come back home to Indianapolis to see that, to my great suprise, the Indianapolis Star’s editorial board was evenly split between McCain and Obama, and therefore is deciding not to make an endorsement this year.
Now, I really don’t think that newspaper endorsements carry much weight in and of themselves, but can be indicative of broader things. The last time the Indy Star endorsed a Democrat for President was 1964. Although significantly less right wing than it used to be, the Star is still a conservative Republican newspaper. It is especially conservative on economic issues — supporting free trade, deregulation, tax cuts, etc., but has been far less supportive of the social conservative agenda. In other words, the Star tends to support Republicans like John McCain. The fact they didn’t is further evidence that maybe, just maybe, we can pull this out in Indiana this year.