I finally read the entire New York Times endorsement editorial tonight. I’m not surprised the paper endorsed the hometown senator, and I respect the logic (the two top candidates have similar policy positions, but at a time when things are a godawful mess in this country, you need someone who can hit the ground running etc etc.). I disagree, but I understand.
Still, as someone who has been writing editorials for 20 years, and reading NY Times editorials even longer, I have to say: This is the most tortured, inelegant work I’ve seen out of that shop in a long time. It’s a string of choppy paragraphs, held together with no transitions or logic; it reads like it was written by a committee, and it probably was.
You can fault the Times for their positions, and I often do, but damn: There was a time when they had some outstanding editorial writers. And this was a perfect chance to make some resounding, important and inspiring points about the future of the Democratic Party, American democracy and public policy. I’m really disappointed.