FINALLY CLINCHING the conversion of the Detroit News from a principled conservative voice to a liberal echo, the paper the other day declined to endorse a candidate for president. This abdication, ending a string of Republican endorsements unbroken since World War II, fooled no one: Michigan Democrats rejoiced.

But how, “agonized” the News‘s editorial, could the paper endorse an incumbent who had made “too many mistakes”? The chief mistake it cited–the Iraq war–is one the Detroit News itself initially supported.