Clinton Gets Tampa Bay Times Endorsement

The Tampa Bay Times, Florida’s largest newspaper, endorsed Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination in their Friday editorial. Back on Jan. 28th The Times gave the their endorsement to former Gov. Jeb Bush on the Republican side.

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The paper dismissed Clinton’s Democratic rival Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders calling his proposals “unrealistic” and “expensive fantasies.” The Times highlighted her experience saying that, “only Clinton has the skill and experience to appeal to general election voters and build on President Barack Obama’s record.”

It was clear that while the Times endorsed the former Secretary of State they did admit that she had some problems. “She is an imperfect candidate with political baggage that would sink most other politicians” — mentioning her “terrible judgement” of using a private email server as secretary of State — they concluded her “record as a pragmatic progressive should be beyond question, and so should her resilience.”

Meanwhile, the paper was not kind to Sanders as they were quick to dismiss his free college tuition idea and his change of the health care system to a single payer plan as  “expensive fantasies,” ripping his “lack of a coherent foreign policy and tendency toward isolationism.”

Sen. Bernie Sanders

Lastly, Clinton got high marks from the paper for being the best prepared on terrorism, domestic security and global diplomacy, while praising her grasp of domestic policy on issues like healthcare.

The endorsement was welcome news to the Clinton camp as they get ready for what they hope will be a great swing south and a chance at stopping Sanders momentum. The Florida primary will be key to Clinton and she is likely to visit the Sunshine State often before the March 15th primary.

 

Jim Williams is the Washington Bureau Chief, Digital Director as well as the Director of Special Projects for Genesis Communications. He is starting his third year as part of the team. This is Williams 40th year in the media business, and in that time he has served in a number of capacities. He is a seven time Emmy Award winning television producer, director, writer and executive. He has developed four regional sports networks, directed over 2,000 live sporting events including basketball, football, baseball hockey, soccer and even polo to name a few sports. Major events include three Olympic Games, two World Cups, two World Series, six NBA Playoffs, four Stanley Cup Playoffs, four NCAA Men’s National Basketball Championship Tournaments (March Madness), two Super Bowl and over a dozen college bowl games. On the entertainment side Williams was involved s and directed over 500 concerts for Showtime, Pay Per View and MTV Networks.