Major Utah newspaper backs Obama

SALT LAKE CITY, Oct. 27 (UPI) -- President Barack Obama received an endorsement this week from the leading newspaper in Utah, the most Republican state in the country.

An editorial in the Salt Lake Tribune headlined "Too Many Mitts -- Obama has earned another term" criticized Republican nominee Mitt Romney, and then cited what it called Obama's achievements as president.

The newspaper praised Romney's term as governor of Massachusetts and his work for the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics in 2002.

"Sadly, it is not the only Romney, as his campaign for the White House has made abundantly clear, first in his servile courtship of the tea party in order to win the nomination, and now as the party's shape-shifting nominee," the newspaper said, calling Romney "shameless" and suggesting he will say whatever it takes to win votes.

The newspaper criticized the Obama administration's handling of the killing in Benghazi of the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans, but it found much more to praise in his record as president.

"Therefore, our endorsement must go to the incumbent, a competent leader who, against tough odds, has guided the country through catastrophe and set a course that, while rocky, is pointing toward a brighter day," it said. "The president has earned a second term. Romney, in whatever guise, does not deserve a first."