Detroit Free Press endorses Obama

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DETROIT, Oct. 28 (UPI) -- The Detroit Free Press gave its endorsement to President Barack Obama Sunday, saying his first term was a success despite partisan opposition.

The newspaper placed the rescue of Chrysler and General Motors at the top of its list of Obama's accomplishments and asked in its editorial, "Is there anything more important to people here in Michigan?"

The Free Press said Obama had stemmed the soaring jobless rate with his financial stimulus program and was finally getting healthcare reform moving forward.

Many of Obama's tougher challenges originated in the Bush administration, the editorial said, and congressional Republican "intransigence" was not helping.

"When Republicans say pejoratively that Obama 'can't run on his record,' they're peddling partisan nonsense and indulging a myopic fiction," it said.

The newspaper warned Obama could not rest on his laurels in a second term and said he had muffed an opportunity to embrace the recommendations of the Simpson-Bowles commission on debt reduction.

As for native son Mitt Romney, the Free Press said the Republican nominee was too ambiguous and vague about his planned policies and was offering a rehash of disproved Republican belief that tax cuts stimulate employment.

"It's unclear whether Romney is playing for political advantage, or whether he's just unsure of who he really is," the editorial said. "Either is unacceptable in the White House, where the president needs certainty not just about what he believes, but why -- and he must be able to rally others to his cause."