The Des Moines Register this weekend endorsed Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts for the Iowa caucuses.
This is the same newspaper that tried to shame a good Samaritan last year with decade-old tweets after he donated more than $1 million to a children’s hospital.
“Warren’s competence, respect for others and status as the nation’s first female president would be a fitting response to the ignorance, sexism and xenophobia of the Trump Oval Office,” the Des Moines Register’s editorial board argues in its endorsement. “She is a thinker, a policy wonk and a hard worker. She remembers her own family’s struggles to make ends meet and her own desperation as a working mother needing child care.”
It is concerning that the board refers to Warren’s hardships as a “working mother” without also mentioning that her claim that she was fired from her job as a teacher in the 1970s for being “visibly pregnant” was proven false by a written record showing that she had actually been asked to stay on in the position. It is additionally concerning that the board characterizes Warren as a “wonk” without acknowledging that she quietly shelved her preposterous, multitrillion-dollar “Medicare for all” proposal after dodging even the simplest questions about how she plans to fund it.
The Des Moines Register’s endorsement adds: “She cares about people, and she will use her seemingly endless energy and passion to fight for them. At this moment, when the very fabric of American life is at stake, Elizabeth Warren is the president this nation needs.”
The senator should be pleased. At this point, with her imploded polling and shrinking fundraising numbers, she can use all the help she can get.
Then again, considering the help comes from an Iowa newspaper with a record of endorsing losing candidates in the Iowa caucuses, perhaps the Des Moines Register’s support is a mixed blessing for Warren (or maybe even a bad omen).
In 1988, the first year the newspaper endorsed candidates in the caucuses, it supported Sen. Paul Simon of Illinois for the Democrats. Former Democratic Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri went on to win the Iowa caucuses that year for his party. Later, in 2000, the Des Moines Register endorsed former New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley for the Democrats. He lost to former Vice President Al Gore. In 2004, the paper endorsed former Democratic Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina. He went on to lose to then-Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts. In 2008, it endorsed Sen. John McCain of Arizona for the GOP and then-Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York for the Democratic Party. McCain lost to former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, and Clinton lost to then-Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois.
In 2012, the Des Moines Register endorsed former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney for the Republicans in the caucuses. Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum won Iowa that year. Later, in 2016, the paper endorsed Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas won.
Of the 11 candidates that the Des Moines Register has endorsed in the Iowa caucuses since 1988, seven have lost, and only four have won. If this paper’s support serves as any sort of predictor, Warren has a better chance of losing than winning.
