Fort Drum’s hometown paper supports Obama

Here’s a blog dispatch from David Sommerstein, who reports on military and Fort Drum issues for NCPR:

The Watertown Daily Times kept up the suspense nearly until the last minute.

Yesterday, the family-owned paper endorsed Barak Obama for president. The WDT is pretty conservative – it endorsed Republicans for all the big local/regional races.

And it’s the hometown paper for Fort Drum and its 16,000 soldiers.

Which is why this quote is pretty telling about how the WDT editorial board feels about the break-neck pace of deployments from Fort Drum to Iraq and Afghanistan:

“Mr. Obama will rely on a more diplomatic approach to the global challenges America faces than the administration exhibited in its early years. Presumably, he would not allow national security needs to override individual freedoms. A more open, less secretive White House would be appreciated.”

Seems like the pace of war and issues like Guantanamo and wire-tapping played a big role in the Times decision.