The editorial board of the New York Times endorsed Clinton for president on Saturday in a pointed article in which the paper’s management said bluntly, “In any normal election year, we’d compare the two presidential candidates side by side on the issues. But this is not a normal election year.”
The Times went on to list what it considers her finest moments and achievements, among them, “efforts to strengthen sanctions against Iran, which eventually pushed it to the table for talks over its nuclear program, and in 2012, she helped negotiate a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas.”
The paper also praised Clinton’s “lasting achievements as a senator” for the state of New York, which the Times said “include a federal fund for long-term monitoring of 9/11 first responders, an expansion of military benefits to cover reservists and the National guard, and a law requiring drug companies to improve the safety of their medications for children. Below the radar, she fought for money for farmers, hospitals, small businesses and environmental projects.”
The paper acknowledged “her own share of mistakes” and her “lamentable penchant for secrecy.” It excused her “poor decision to rely on a private email server while at the State Department,” allowing that the decision deserved “scrutiny, and it’s had it,” but that the issue when considered against the current challenges facing the next president “looks like a matter for the help desk.”