Uh Oh, there's a Mitt-stake in this Paper

Here is a Letter to the Editor I wrote for the Tampa Tribune in response to the paper’s endorsement of Mitt Romney for president. I didn’t see it in print, but it might or might not have appeared on the paper’s website. I am proud of it, though, so I am sharing it with you here.

Tribune Endorses Mitt, Really?

After some well-reasoned editorial opinions from the Tampa Tribune Editorial Board, I was looking forward to an endorsement of President Barack Obama, to continue on his course of repairing the damage done to the United States by eight years of Bush rule.  

After all, you warned us against deceptively-named amendments which would only give power and tax-breaks to the already well-off.

You Endorsed Bill Nelson, who is most likely to work on behalf of the working people of Florida, and the candidate best suited to support Obama as president for the next four years.

You issued a thoughtful yet fervent plea to Florida voters to keep the current Supreme Court judges, who are only being targeted because they aren’t indebted to the Republican Party and rich out-of-state manipulators.

Yeah, it looked pretty good for the Tampa Tribune to support a president who has been willing to swim against the red-state tide, and work against those who have set his failure as priority one, no matter how it hurts the middle class of the US.

But, then “with confidence and enthusiasm” you endorsed Mitt Romney for president!

I suppose you don’t mind that Mitt’s Opinions on a wide variety of subjects seems to change with the direction of the wind, and what he perceives that day’s audience would like to hear. I suppose it doesn’t matter that Mitt Romney’s foreign affairs experience has to do with off-shore investing, annoying the Brits prior to the Olympics, and helping to ship jobs overseas. I suppose you decided to overlook that fact that Mitt, if elected, will owe huge debts to those who helped him move into the White House. I don’t mean the voters; I mean the Koch Brothers and Sheldon Adelson, without whom his candidacy wouldn’t have stood much of a chance.

Did you feel the need to balance the endorsement the Tampa Bay Times would be giving Obama? I would certainly hope you would not base such a critical editorial on such shallow reasoning.

With the state of Florida such an important battleground for this very important election, your endorsement of Mitt Romney for President simply doesn’t make sense.

Dan Hicks