Posted on 09/28/2004 11:04:53 PM PDT by Byron Norris
CRAWFORD, Texas (Reuters) - The newspaper in President Bush (news - web sites)'s adopted hometown of Crawford threw its support on Tuesday behind Bush's Democratic rival, Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites).
Reuters Photo
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The weekly Lone Star Iconoclast criticized Bush's handling of the war in Iraq (news - web sites) and for turning budget surpluses into record deficits. The editorial also criticized Bush's proposals on Social Security (news - web sites) and Medicare.
"The publishers of The Iconoclast endorsed Bush four years ago, based on the things he promised, not on this smoke-screened agenda," the newspaper said in its editorial. "Today, we are endorsing his opponent, John Kerry."
It urged "Texans not to rate the candidate by his hometown or even his political party, but instead by where he intends to take the country."
Bush spends many of his weekends and holidays at his Crawford, Texas, ranch.
The Iconoclast's publisher and editor-in-chief, W. Leon Smith, said the newspaper is sent to Bush's ranch each week. "But I don't know if he reads it," Smith said.
The Kerry campaign welcomed the endorsement in an email to reporters.
Why ever buy toilet paper again?
hobos won't even use that paper to whip their azz.
I understand it's circulation is less than 500.
So the liberal editor of a weekly wipe supports Kerry. Why should we care?
Quite frankly, so what?
I can't see anyone other than kooks supporting either major candidate in this election.
Just a hint for ya: people who cite their paper as any sort of reference vis a vis veracity usually don't know what they're talking about.
Mr. Bush uses their paper to wrap fish in !
This guy started the paper just four years ago. He isn't even from Crawford, and he owns two other papers...
http://www.campaigndesk.org/archives/000410.asp
Well then - it that's the way it works, I'll say that I own a paper too, and I'll say that I represent Crawford. Good. Now the OTHER paper that represents Crawford endorses Bush. It's about that credible...
Bush is going to win Texas. Big time.
circulation 425, wanna bet how many of them are Bush supporters? It sounded like the DNC wrote the endorsement.
Soon to be under 250 subscribers. 50% decline over one story...a mini CBS. Actually, 500 subscribers at $100 bucks a year is $50,000 in gross revenues. Obviously, a one man shop. The fact this makes national news is further evidence of media bias to the left.
Reuters is wetting its briefs in excitement. TEXAS IS BUSH COUNTRY!!! Who cares what the local fishwrap in Crawford thinks? If they had endorsed Bush, they would have been dismissed as another flyover country poisonletter. By endorsing Kerry, they get favorable exposure in the mainstream media.
yawwwwwwwwwn....a total non-story
Big cocka-doodle-crap! There's all of 200 people in Crawford that will be voting this year. The paper should be ashamed, the President put that dump on the map. It's a highway and a gas station.
I mean, our county's results (Jefferson-in s.e. TX)for the last governor election were overwhelmingly for Sanchez, who had that savings & loan fiasco and was a total joke. Real sleaze.
Bunch of hard Union people here. My own grandfather has voted a straight D ticket far as we know since he got on at Texaco at age 25 and got in a union...and he's now 95.
Our Congress race is a big D name, like usual, (Lampson), and an unknown Repub...and he's not from here but Houston. With redistricting we've got some of the Houston area now, and our area hasn't had much interest at all in what they see as big city hotshots. I wish there were House term limits, our local D-Rat has been there too long.
As far as Pres. race - Kerry is frankly scaring them (woohoo!) because they just don't trust him. It's improving somewhat lately, a lot of closet conservatives are starting to come out of the woodwork. But, usually our county has a history of going against most of the rest of Texas.
WOULD BE NICE IF THE WHOLE TOWN STOPPED BUYING HIS RINKY-DINK PAPER...AND THE WAY THE TOWN FEELS ABOUT BUSH THAT JUST MIGHT HAPPEN...THE GUY JUST WANTED TO MAKE NEWS HIMSELF
So of course its endorsement is "big news" to the liberal media. I expect Dan to be covering the story on tonight's Evening News broadcast... for which he has also, coincidentally, has about 500 remaining viewers...
The local news went to Crawford yesterday and couldn't find one person in town that agreed with this endorsement--they were furious. The paper is actually not a Crawford paper--it is printed in Clifton. The publisher and editor-in-chief, W. Leon Smith is the mayor of Clifton. I found this interesting story on their website:
Clifton Mayor Interviewed By BBC Radio, London, Regarding Pending Invasion Of Iraq
LONDON — A late night (11 p.m., CST) interview session Saturday that was scheduled to air Sunday morning on the British Broadcasting Corporation radio station Live Five, in London, featured Clifton Mayor W. Leon Smith, who not only publishes The Clifton Record, but also Crawford’s hometown newspaper, The Lone Star Iconoclast.
The subject was the impending invasion of Iraq by the United States and its efforts to persuade the rest of the free world to join in the effort.
According to Smith, President Bush contends that the United Nations Security Council resolution regarding weapons inventory in Iraq has suffered a “material breakdown” since mis-reporting has occurred. This now offers an accelerated possibility of war, perhaps as early as late-January 2003. However, some free-world countries are reluctant to embrace the prospect of going to war against Iraq because they feel that more of a breach is required, such as Iraq not cooperating with the effort.
“To me,” said Smith in the interview, “the falsifying of records is an act of non-cooperation, and, besides, that really does not matter. The fact is that Baghdad is the heart of terrorism in the world and must be reckoned with. You cannot wage a war on terrorism without attempting to rid the world of its worst terrorists. Saddam is comparable to a new-age Adolph Hitler. He tortures and murders those who do not worship him. He takes great pleasure in torturing and murdering children and enjoys watching them die horrible deaths.
“Unfortunately, the inhabitants of Iraq cannot liberate themselves. The stronghold is too massive. They live every day in terror, which is exactly what Hussein would like to offer to us and every other country, if he could. It would be better if the residents of Iraq could liberate themselves, but they cannot. They’re stuck, unless someone steps in for the sake of humanity.”
Smith said that Britain is somewhat caught in a crossfire and its leaders are searching for excuses to not get involved. Some of this searching, said Smith, relates to their defining the United States as a solid capitalist country, in it for greed of oil, or for President Bush’s attempts to finish a job that his father started during the Gulf War, as a strategy of payback.
“These are side issues,” said Smith, “as is the implication that there are other small countries that are run by terrorist dictators, too, so why are we focusing on Iraq? The answer to that is if you strike at the heart, perhaps the worst, the others will become a mop-up effort,” said the mayor.
Smith was interviewed since he is publisher of the Crawford newspaper. The BBC wanted to get an idea of what Central Texans thought about Bush and his pursuit of war.
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