New York Times endorses Obama

Washington - The New York Times endorsed President Barack Obama on Saturday as he seeks a second term in the White House on November 6.

The paper’s editorial board said the decision was due to administration policies that have placed the economy on the path to recovery, the passage of landmark health care reform, the advocating of women’s rights and a foreign policy agenda that has kept unstable regions from combustion — all accomplished.

The endorsement is significant as it comes from one of the most influential papers in the United States.

According to the Huffington Post, the Times’ liberal-leaning editorial page backed Obama in 2008 and has, throughout 2012, painted a stark contrast between Obama’s vision and the policy proposals of his GOP presidential rival Mitt Romney.

“He has tied himself to the ultraconservative forces that control the Republican Party and embraced their policies, including reckless budget cuts and 30-year-old, discredited trickle-down ideas,” the editorial board wrote of Romney in its Saturday’s editorial ‘Barack Obama for Re-Election’.

“Voters may still be confused about Mr. Romney’s true identity, but they know the Republican Party, and a Romney administration would reflect its agenda,” the editorial added.

According to the report, on the economy, the editorial noted that Obama avoided another Great Depression and called the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act ‘an important milestone’, while it referred to Romney’s vague economic plan as ‘regressive’.

With respect to health care, the Times said that Obama has achieved ‘one of the most sweeping health care reforms’ since Medicare and Medicaid in 1965 — the Affordable Care Act, the report said.

For Romney, the board wrote that he ‘has no plans for covering the uninsured’ and would turn Medicare into a voucher-like program.

On Obama’s foreign policy agenda, the editorial said that he has embraced a policy agenda that is ‘resolute’ and ‘smart’, undoing the damage of the Bush years and repairing the reputation of the U.S. overseas, the report said.

Finally, the board praised Obama’s Supreme Court appointments and over civil rights – contrasting his record on immigration, LGBT issues, and women’s health with the conservative views Romney has offered on each subject, it added.