Albuquerque Tribune Endorses Kerry

From the Official Kerry Blog:

The Albuquerque Tribune, which went for George Bush in 2000, has endorsed John Kerry for president. The Tribune is not a major paper (circulation 13,536), but in a tightly-contested state like New Mexico, even small papers can make a difference.
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"The Tribune endorses John Kerry for president of the United States."-- Albuquerque Tribune, October 12, 2004

He has earned the job - and the chance to return security, prosperity, freedom, consensus and the American identity to a nation at odds with the world and itself.

The United States has lost its way under President Bush, who too often has failed on both foreign and domestic fronts. Worse, he has been unable to unite a deeply divided nation.

Bush, whom The Tribune endorsed in 2000, has offered simplistic slogans to complex problems, while Kerry sees complicated problems and offers the promise of appropriate solutions - complex or not.

The reality is the world is not a simple place, seldom black or white, and Kerry knows that intuitively. He understands the gray, the nuance - and that easy-bake solutions like nuclear weapons, Navy carriers and conservative or liberal platitudes usually don't apply or work.

This is critical in addressing big picture issues from Iraq to the economy. Kerry's style, attention to detail and global view will serve this nation better in the long run.

The Tribune believes Kerry offers the best leadership for the vast majority of New Mexicans and other Americans, who identify with his vision of who we are, where we need to go and how best to get there.

Why not Bush?

The occupant of the Oval Office and his running mate, Dick Cheney, have changed the paradigm that governs American ideals. Some of that, as Bush accurately notes, has been a product of Sept. 11, 2001. But the damage Bush has done to U.S. interests and respect, both internally and externally, has been devastating and long term.

From the war in Iraq and the acidic sections of the Patriot Act to global warming and national energy policy, Bush's foreign and domestic policies have been based on secrecy, fear, distortion and misinformation.

For these reasons, we urge independent and undecided voters in particular to double-check what Bush says against what he has done. Bush continues to insult American intelligence with his:

Mistaken and unreal views of the war in Iraq, with its mounting costs in American and Iraqi lives, money and good will.

Failure to focus U.S. military might on pursuing our real enemy, the terrorists.

Willingness to compromise American freedoms, in contrast to a resistance to develop and implement safeguards to protect our people, borders, ports and infrastructure from future terror attacks.

Unabashed flip-flop of the conservative fiscal ideal, turning a balanced federal budget - indeed, a huge surplus - into the largest deficit in U.S. history.

Unrelenting attack on 30 years of environmental promise to benefit political friends in the fossil fuel and utility industries.

Willingness to accept a $422 billion federal deficit, a ballooning $7.42 trillion national debt and grossly unfair tax cuts.

These all come at the expense of ordinary, hard-working, taxpaying Americans - and our children's children, who will be stuck paying the bill.

Kerry has earned command

In very sharp contrast, Kerry has demonstrated tested qualities of leadership and imagination. The hallmarks of his Senate record and presidential candidacy are less partisan and more fundamentally democratic and moderate.

And moderation, in an increasingly polarized nation, is absolutely vital.

Kerry embraces transparency, consensus and compromise. As does our Constitution, he will seek to include, not exclude.

Although labeled a flip-flopper, Kerry represents the essence of statesmanship. Unlike Bush and Cheney, he has the courage to alter political positions and courses when he finds he was mistaken.

Take the central issue of national security and its core issues of combating terrorism and the war in Iraq. Kerry has correctly assessed the mistake that is the situation in Iraq; has promised to redirect and focus U.S. military efforts back to pursuing al-Qaida and other terrorist groups; and has pledged to significantly and substantially bolster the U.S. military, including our defensive posture at home.

While he has set no timetable for leaving Iraq and says we must remain there to fix the tragic mess, he presents a more realistic plan to end the U.S. occupation, transfer power to the Iraqi people and extricate our troops as soon as practical.

He has promised to rebuild our international alliances, embrace alliances and treaties, and lead by example, not threat.

For example, Kerry, like Bush, recognizes that nuclear proliferation represents the greatest threat to the United States and world peace. But he would shift our focus to the real problems of a nuclear Iran and North Korea and enjoin U.S. proliferation.

Kerry's agenda reflects a recognition that America can do better. He promises a government that stops and reverses the export of jobs; restores fiscal discipline by cutting the deficit in half; rolls back the tax cut for the wealthy to help fund education and health care; reforms the health care and drug industries to lower costs; and doesn't put public schools in a bind in fixing what's wrong in our classrooms.

A Kerry administration also promises to restore sound science to public policy decisions in human environmental protection, medical research and protecting the environment - particularly in the still grand, but threatened, American West.

Kerry embraces ideas. He seeks to represent the most fundamental of American values, ideals and hopes. He is committed to a government contract based on the premise "of, by and for the people."