Tag Archives: Orlando Sentinel

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Yep, it’s ‘Anybody But Trump in 2020’

I believe the Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel is on to something with its declared intent to support whomever the Democratic Party nominates in the upcoming campaign for the presidency of the United States.

The Twitter hashtag #AnybodyButTrump2020 is getting a lot of views out there. I understand it’s the fifth most tweeted hashtag in the Twitter universe.

Whatever …

I saw the editorial Tuesday as the president was preparing to deliver his official re-election kickoff speech in central Florida. I was struck by the same thing that has amazed so many media watchers: How can the newspaper make such a declaration so early in the electoral process?

According to the Sentinel’s editorial, it’s easy: “After 2 1/2 years we’ve seen enough” of Donald Trump, the paper wrote. “Enough of the chaos, the division, the schoolyard insults, the self-aggrandizement, the corruption and especially the lies,” the Sentinel opined.

How many ways can I endorse the Sentinel’s views on the president. And they come from a newspaper with a long history of endorsing Republicans for president (mostly).

I suppose the variation comes because Trump only masquerades as a Republican. He belongs to a party that has been historically suspicious of Russian leaders. The GOP has long been a champion of free trade and a staunch foe of economic protectionism. Indeed, Republicans helped a Democratic president enact landmark civil rights and voting rights laws in the 1960s; does anyone believe Donald Trump stands for those principles today?

The lying is the serious deal breaker for the Sentinel. The paper said it isn’t surprised that Trump would lie. It is appalled at the frequency and the severity of the lies.

They have set a remarkable template for how other media organizations might consider when they deliberate over whom to recommend for the presidency.

For good measure, I want to share once again the Sentinel’s editorial with this link.

I now want to thank the Orlando Sentinel editorial board for speaking the truth about the charlatan who is masquerading as our head of state. May the newspaper’s words resonate across the land.

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Anybody but Trump? How ’bout that?

Call this a serious kick in the gut.

Donald Trump is venturing to Orlando, Fla., tonight to inaugurate his 2020 re-election campaign. So, what does that community’s newspaper do? It published an editorial today that declared it would endorse “any Democrat” who runs against the Republican president next year.

Read the editorial here.

It’s good reading if you’re interested in understanding how a major media organization reaches its editorial conclusion.

The Orlando Sentinel remains a significant media presence in central Florida. “After 2 1/2 years, we’ve seen enough” of Trump to determine that he isn’t worthy of the newspaper’s endorsement for re-election.

The chaos, the lying, the “school yard insults,” the self-aggrandizement, the corruption are too much for the newspaper’s editorial board. “There’s no pretending” that there is a mystery whom the paper would recommend for its readers, it said. That’s why the Sentinel has declared its intention to recommend any Democrat who emerges from the crowded field of contenders.

It’s the lying that is consummate deal-breaker for the Sentinel, which writes: Trump’s successful assault on truth is the great casualty of this presidency, followed closely by his war on decency.

What’s more, according to the Sentinel: Trump has diminished our standing in the world. He reneges on deals, attacks allies and embraces enemies.

I know what’s going to happen tonight. Trump is likely to hold up the Sentinel’s rebuke as some sort of triumph over the “enemy of the people.” He will contend he doesn’t care what the newspaper’s editorial board believes about the disgraceful manner in which he has conducted himself. He will fill his own mind with the delusion that all is well with him, the country, the presidency and the world all because he arrived on the scene in 2016 to save us from ourselves.

I am one American who embraces the Orlando Sentinel’s decision to avoid pussyfooting around the conclusion it has reached: Donald Trump needs to go … away