I am not the least bit surprised that a liberal rag like the Washington Post would endorse John Kerry for president. Hell, I'd really like to see a study of national newspapers and their endorsements. It would offer some valuable insight into just how liberal the mainstream media really is.

But what bugs me about the Post is not that they endorse Kerry, but that they still refuse to be honest about the reason why. The Washington Post claims:

As readers of this page know, we find much to criticize in Mr. Bush's term but also more than a few things to admire. We find much to admire in Mr. Kerry's life of service, knowledge of the world and positions on a range of issues -- but also some things that give us pause.

So, they have lots of reasons to hate Bush, and only a few reasons to like him; meanwhile Kerry gives them many reasons to love him, but he has a few minor drawbacks.

But to back up this statement, the Post proceeds to spend well over more than half of their Kerry endorsement maligning Bush. For an article supposedly about John Kerry, the Post drones on about Bush for 11 straight paragraphs (both about his strengths and his weaknesses). Just look at the first sentence or phrase of each paragraph:

The balancing process begins, as reelection campaigns must, with the incumbent...

But Mr. Bush...

The campaign that Mr. Bush led...

In Iraq, we do not fault Mr. Bush...

We do, however, fault Mr. Bush ...

These failings have a common source in Mr. Bush's cocksureness ...

ON THE DOMESTIC side, Mr. Bush ...

Which brings us to his reckless fiscal policy. Mr. Bush ...

But Mr. Bush aggravated ...

In 2000, Mr. Bush ...

SO MR. BUSH HAS not earned a second term...

The only reason they offer for supporting Kerry is that he has a plan. Oh, and that Kerry's "plan" consists of raising taxes on the evil, hated, rich (which they support), and Kerry is better at "nation building", which is code for subverting the best interests of America in order to appease others.

While the issues are debatable, the Washington Post makes it pretty clear that Kerry's last name could be Hitler and they would still support him simply because he's not Bush.