More Election Trivia

The following information comes from George Weeks, a syndicated columnist who appears periodically in our local paper:

"It was an astounding thing last week when the Detroit News (where I long worked) and some other papers in Arizona and elsewhere in the nation for the first time in their history endorsed someone other than a Republican candidate for president." (I would have put some commas in that sentence, but that's just me.)

The Detroit News has been publishing for 143 years. The other major newspaper in Detroit is the Detroit Free Press, which traditionally leans toward the left although, the last I heard, both papers were owned by the same company. Weeks then goes on to say that the Chicago Tribune which, in its 181 year history has only endorsed one Democrat (Obama in 2008), has also refused to endorse Trump. Since neither of these papers could bring themselves to endorse Hillary, they have both endorsed Gary Johnson, the Libertarian candidate. In one way this is not surprising, since the Libertarian Party was originally founded by people who disliked Nixon, but couldn't bring themselves to vote for a Democrat. On the other hand, I have been repeatedly surprised by the amount of recognition that the lame stream has been giving the Libertarians lately.

Weeks also discusses the looming race for Michigan's 1st Congressional District, which is where I live. I knew that it was a big district, encompassing all of the Upper Peninsula and some counties in the Lower. What I didn't know was that it was a total of 15 counties in the UP and 16 and 1/2 counties in the LP, and that it covers almost half of the state of Michigan, and is the second largest congressional district east of the Mississippi. Cool! Anyway, I am not crazy about the Republican candidate in that contest, and I'm certainly not going to vote for a Democrat so, if the Libertarians have a candidate in that race, I am inclined to vote for them. I know I said previously that we are going to need all the Republicans in Congress that we can get, since Hillary is likely to win the presidency, but this guy is a retired Marine Corps General, and a Trump supporter. A guy has to draw the line somewhere.