EXCLUSIVE: Newspaper Endorsements for President Since 1940 Show Wide GOP Edge

By: Greg Mitchell As many may know, E&P, citing tradition, has been counting and listing all of the editorial page endorsements for president again this year. In the current count, to be updated Thursday, Barack Obama leads by about 125 to 46 over John McCain. Check out our running list of all endorsements, updated continuously here.

But what about in years past? Have Democrats usually earned the nod from newspapers? Or is Obama just an especially good candidate -- or McCain a poor one -- this year, in the eyes of many newspapers?

We have noted previously that in our 2004 count, John Kerry barely edged George Bush 213-205. But what about before then?

Well, in 2000 we took a poll of editors and publishers and found that they reported, by a 2-1 margin, that they had favored Bush over Al Gore. This was fairly close to what we found later when we asked papers about their 2000 endorsements and found 137 saying they had backed Bush and only 99 naming Gore.

In 1996, by our count, Bob Dole topped Bill Clinton in this area by 122-80, among the editorials identified.

And before then? We have located an October 26, 1996, article by Jodi B. Cohen in these pages, summarizing E&P findings going back to 1940. We're not sure exactly how E&P got the word on these endorsements in the days before e-mail, fax, and the Web -- Pony Express? -- but we will let you know about that soon when we find out.

But here is that accounting, which shows an extremely wide GOP edge from the so-called "liberal press" going way back, with even JFK and FDR taking it on the chin. A Democrat did not earn the most editorial votes until Johnson edged Goldwater in 1964 and then not again until Clinton recorded a narrow "win" in 1992.

# endorsements R (%) # endorsements D (%) no-endorsement at all or could not determine(%)

1940: Willkie (R) Roosevelt (D)
813 (63.9) 289 (22.7) 171 (13.4)

1944: Dewey (R) Roosevelt (D)
796 (60.1) 291 (22.0) 237 (17.9)

1948: Dewey (R) Truman (D)
771 (65.2) 182 (15.4)
Thurmond (I) Wallace (I)
45 (3.8) 3 (.3) 182 (15.4)

1952: Eisenhower (R) Stevenson (D)
933 (67.3) 202 (14.5) 250 (18.1)

1956: Eisenhower (R) Stevenson (D)
740 (62.3) 189 (15.1) 270 (22.7)

1960: Nixon (R) Kennedy (D)
731 (57.7) 208 (16.4) 328 (25.9)

1964: Johnson (D) Goldwater (R)
440 (42.4) 359 (34.7) 237 (22.9)

1968: Nixon (R) Humphrey (D)
634 (60.8) 146 (14)
Wallace (I)
12 (1.2) 250 (24.0)

1972: Nixon (R) McGovern (D)
753 (71.4) 56 (5.3) 245 (23.3)

1976: Ford (R) Carter (D)
411 (62) 80 (12) 168 (26)

1980: Reagan (R) Carter(D)
443 (42.2) 126 (12)
Anderson (I)
40 (3.8) 439 (42)

1984: Reagan (R) Mondale (D)
381 (57.7) 62 (9.4) 216 (27)

1988: Bush (R) Dukakis (D)
195 (29.5) 51 (7.7) 416 (62.8)

1992: Clinton (D) Bush (R)
149 (18.3) 125 (14.9)
Perot (I)
1 (0.1) 542 (66.7)