Forum Post: New York Daily News joins growing number of newspapers switching endorsement to Romney

One of New York’s most influential and traditionally Democratic media organizations pulled a stunner Sunday when it reversed its 2008 endorsement of Barack Obama to join the New York Post in endorsing Mitt Romney.

“Four years ago, the Daily News endorsed Obama, seeing a historic figure whose intelligence, political skills and empathy with common folk positioned him to build on the small practical experience he would bring to the world’s toughest job,” the endorsement in part states. “We valued Obama’s pledge to govern with bold pragmatism and bipartisanship. The hopes of those days went unfulfilled.”

The endorsement also ticks off a list of reasons for why the daily tabloid is backing Romney in 2012 – including smaller paychecks, fewer jobs and higher subway fares and gasoline prices.

“America’s heart, soul, brains and muscle -- the middle- and working-class people who make this nation great -- have been beset for too long by sapping economic decline,” the editorial continues. “So, too, (have) New York breadwinners and families.”

Beyond the rhetoric, the paper backs up its decision with a salvo of numbers after the 2008 financial crisis – including a 7.9 percent national jobless rate and nine million fewer jobs.

The paper also points out the hometown crowd, with some of the most well-educated and well-paid residents in the country not spared.

The median household income for a New York family dropped by $54 a week over that period, the paper also points out.