Houston Chronicle Backs Hillary Clinton in Surprise, Early Endorsement

HOUSTON, TX — The Houston Chronicle made a surprising early endorsement in the 2016 race for president, describing Hillary Clinton as the best choice in a July 29 editorial and her opponent, Donald Trump, as incompetent, incapable, ignorant and dangerous.

With its history of backing Republican candidates, the Chronicle's stance proved even more surprising because the general election campaigns of Clinton and Trump have hardly begun. More than three months remain before Election Day.

The question of why one of Texas's biggest newspapers endorsed early is answered in the editorial's title: “These are unsettling times that require a steady hand: That’s not Donald Trump.”

The editorial begins with the conclusion that Trump "would be dangerous to the nation":

On Nov. 8, 2016, the American people will decide between two presidential contenders who represent the starkest political choice in living memory. They will choose between one candidate with vast experience and a lifelong dedication to public service and another totally lacking in qualifications to be president. They will decide whether they prefer someone deeply familiar with the issues that are important to this nation or a person whose paper-thin, bumper-sticker proposals would be dangerous to the nation and the world if somehow they were enacted.

The Chronicle, a Hearst Corporation newspaper, endorsed Jeb Bush early in the primary season and did not endorse anyone else after he dropped out. The newspaper would've seen a campaign between Clinton and any of the other early hopefuls as healthy for our democracy.

An election between the Democrat Clinton and, let's say, the Republican Jeb Bush or John Kasich or Marco Rubio, even the hyper-ideological Ted Cruz, would spark a much-needed debate about the role of government and the nation's future, about each candidate's experience and abilities. But those Republican hopefuls have been vanquished. To choose the candidate who defeated them - fairly and decisively, we should point out - is to repudiate the most basic notions of competence and capability.

Any one of Trump's less-than-sterling qualities - his erratic temperament, his dodgy business practices, his racism, his Putin-like strongman inclinations and faux-populist demagoguery, his contempt for the rule of law, his ignorance - is enough to be disqualifying. His convention-speech comment, "I alone can fix it," should make every American shudder. He is, we believe, a danger to the Republic.

The two noteworthy exceptions during that string were Barack Obama in his first run against John McCain and Lyndon B. Johnson, a Texan, in his run against Barry Goldwater in 1964. The Chronicle's endorsement of Obama pointedly criticized the selection of Sarah Palin as McCain's running mate, and its editorial endorsing Johnson praised his selection of Hubert Humphrey, the "strongest and ablest Democrat," for vice president.

Since 1980, Texas voters have favored the Republican candidate in every presidential election. Texans favored the Democrats in 1976 (Jimmy Carter), 1968 (Hubert Humphrey), 1964 (Lyndon B. Johnson) and 1960 (John F. Kennedy).

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A sizable number of Republicans of stature, including Presidents George and George W. Bush, are not supporting Trump. Dozens of national security experts who've worked for several Republican presidents have said they would refuse to serve in a Trump administration. U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, declined to endorse Trump and suffered Trump's wrath after urging Americans to "vote your conscience" during the GOP convention. Cruz also said he could not forget Trump maligned Cruz's wife and father.

The Chronicle's endorsement of Clinton notes that Republican Texas House Speaker Joe Straus also has pointedly refused to back Trump. Straus was not swayed to Trump by anything said or done at the GOP Convention in Cleveland, either. Meanwhile, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry has been a willing surrogate for Trump on the TV news programs.

Of Clinton, the Chronicle wrote:

As President Obama noted, she's the most qualified person in years to serve as president - "and that includes Bill and me." The only candidate to come close is George H.W. Bush.

Whether voters like her personally is almost irrelevant at this "moment of reckoning," to use Clinton's words. She herself concedes that she's not a natural campaigner. She lacks Obama's oratorical gifts or her husband's folksy ability to connect with crowds. Too often she comes across as calculated, inauthentic. We're confident that she is, indeed, "steady and measured and well-informed" and that she would be a much better president than a presidential candidate.

Trump has been lambasted for making fun of a disabled reporter, criticizing a Gold Star family that spoke against him at the Democratic convention, cozying up to Russian President Vladimir Putin, lacking basic knowledge of key foreign policy issues, and suggesting the United States might not support NATO allies under a Trump Administration.

After describing his ignorance and incompetence, the Chronicle concludes the stakes are far too high to entrust Trump with the nation's welfare:

These are unsettling times, even if they're not the dark, dystopian end times that Trump lays out. They require a steady hand. That's not Donald Trump.

The times also require a person who envisions a hopeful future for this nation, a person who has faith in the strong, prosperous and confident America we hope to bequeath our children and grandchildren, as first lady Michelle Obama so eloquently envisioned in Philadelphia. That's not Donald Trump's America.

Here's a sampling of reaction to the Chronicle endorsement, via Twitter:

Neither the Clinton campaign nor the Trump campaign responded to the endorsement.

The most recent polling in Texas, in June, by the University of Texas placed Trump ahead of Clinton, 41 percent to 33 percent, while 19 percent favored "someone else" and 8 percent "haven't thought about it enough."