BCT Editorial – 10/23/08

This page was last updated on October 26, 2008.

Real choices; Editorial; Beaver County Times; October 23, 2008.

The editorial subtitle is “Incumbents face challengers in three legislative races.”

As the “endorsement” in “Inside the numbers,” these endorsements are lame. You’ll see what I mean below.

The endorsement of Mr. Gibbons simply says he “shows real substance on policy issues and has a good grasp of politics. A talent this rare deserves to be returned to the state House.” Nowhere in this or previous editorials did the Times elaborate.

The Times “endorsed” Mr. Marshall simply because his opponent Dennis Rousseau “failed to return two telephone messages to set up a meeting with the editorial board.”

In the case of Mr. Biancucci, the editorial at least provided a detailed reason, albeit only one and a lame one at that. Allegedly the endorsement hinged on “Biancucci’s successful effort to help clear the way for the first voluntary merger of school districts in Pennsylvania.” Let’s remember the merger of the Center Area and Monaca school districts occurred because of the hard work of the past and present school boards. While Mr. Biancucci submitting a bill to allow the existing mercantile tax to continue was a positive step, I simply don’t believe the tax was a deal killer. In any case, Mr. Biancucci has been office for nearly six years. It’s pretty sad the endorsement is based on one action.

As in “Inside the numbers,” nowhere in this editorial do we read about the core principles of the candidates.

If the Times is consistent, the Times official endorsement of Barack Obama will say something like “Vote for Mr. Obama because Democrats will likely be the majority party in Congress.” or Mr. Obama “has a good grasp of politics. A talent this rare deserves to be” President.

Based on my review of Times editorials, the Times didn’t endorse any candidates in 2006. Based on the quality of the Times endorsements in 2008, perhaps the Times should go back to not endorsing anyone.