Newspaper endorsements matter

By GottaLaff

Too bad so many papers are going under:

A new study of newspaper endorsements finds the they "are influential in the sense that voters are more likely to support the recommended candidate after publication of the endorsement. The degree of this influence, however, depends upon the credibility of the endorsement. In this way, endorsements for the Democratic candidate from left-leaning newspapers are less influential than are endorsements from neutral or right-leaning newspapers, and likewise for endorsements for the Republican."

The latest Editor & Publisher tally shows Obama maintains his strong lead in daily newspaper endorsements, 234 to 105. The circulation of the Obama-backing papers stands at over 21 million, compared with McCain's 7 million.

Furthermore, at least 47 newspapers have now switched to Obama from Bush in 2004, with just four flipping to McCain.

Brian Williams just showed a clip of his Obama interview. Obama was terrific, discussing the Supreme Court and privacy issues. Of course, Williams had to follow up with Noron McDonnell by saying candidates are "one step away from disaster" when they do interviews this late in the game.

Obama also appears on Rachel Maddow's show tonight. I'm sure it will be a complete disaster.