Kerry Takes Early Lead in Newspaper Endorsements (washingtonpost.com) By Brian Faler and Jo Becker

This just in: John F. Kerry popular with editorial writers.

The Democratic presidential nominee has jumped out to an early lead in the race for newspaper endorsements, especially from those in the all-important swing states.

Kerry has won the support of nine papers in closely contested states, while four are backing President Bush. Both of Philadelphia’s major newspapers — the Inquirer and the Daily News — have endorsed Kerry. So has the Oregonian, which backed Bush in 2000. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Detroit Free Press, the Daily Star in Tucson, the Portland Press Herald in Maine and both of the big papers in Seattle — the Times and the Post-Intelligencer — have announced their support for Kerry.

Daily Endorsement Tally By Greg Mitchell

Total Pro-Kerry Daily Circ: 2,534,377 [11 papers]
Total Pro-Bush Daily Circ: 637,187 [8 papers]

This site compiles newspaper editorial endorsements of the candidates, with figures for circulation and who each paper endorsed in 2000. Three of the papers that now endorse Kerry endorsed Bush in 2000.

Strangely, they don’t include Bush’s hometown paper. mjh

The publishers of The Iconoclast endorsed Bush four years ago, based on the things he promised, not on this smoke-screened agenda.

Today, we are endorsing his opponent, John Kerry, based not only on the things that Bush has delivered, but also on the vision of a return to normality that Kerry says our country needs.

[Thanks for the leads from Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire]