Hartford Courant, the oldest continuously operated newspaper in the United States - Endorsement:
Great endorsement!!!
Courant Primary Endorsement: Hillary Clinton Most Qualified And Effective
Bernie Sanders is an unlikely candidate to bring idealism back to presidential politics. A son of Jewish immigrants from Brooklyn who found his calling as a socialist from Vermont, Sen. Sanders has reminded us what politics is supposed to be about: Making the ideals of equality and justice work for all Americans.
He speaks eloquently to the need to eliminate inequities in a system that advantages those who already have wealth and power. His popularity speaks to the fact that Americans are tired of the cozy relationship between business and government, of the gridlock and bitterness that defines politics today.
Hillary Clinton, who has long been a fighter, is now clearly part of the political elite that Mr. Sanders has taken aim at. Young voters have turned their backs on her while flocking to Mr. Sanders. She needs to take a long look in the mirror and make sure she doesn't forget why she got into politics in the first place.
But the choice before us is not who is the better candidate, but who would make the better president. And on that score, we believe a pragmatist like Mrs. Clinton is the better choice to fight for those ideals.
Why Mrs. Clinton?
The state and nation are in an uneasy place. The economic recovery hasn't lifted all boats. Families continue to struggle with doctors' bills, even with Obamacare bending the cost curve, and students wonder how they'll pay for college. Terrorism in Europe frightens Americans, while the U.S. has its own homegrown terrors.
Few candidates in history have had Mrs. Clinton's prepping for such challenges. As a senator from New York, she was more effective at legislating than Sen. Sanders was, The Washington Post says. As secretary of state, she secured the tough sanctions against Iran that eventually led the dismantling of much of its nuclear program. While first lady, she shrugged off the failure of her health-care-for-all plan in 1993 and set about helping to get millions of poor children coverage.
Yes, she has flaws. She's seen as polarizing, and as a hawk for voting for the 2002 Iraq war resolution. She was wrong to skirt the rules with her personal email use while secretary of state. Benghazi happened on her watch. She's too close to Wall Street, and has been too willing to take sizable speaking fees from those who expect the favor to be repaid one day.
Mr. Sanders is right to ask whether Mrs. Clinton is too embedded in the establishment to change it. The question is whether Mr. Sanders has the political tools to change it. She does. She has often crossed the divide to solve problems, whether negotiating a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas or getting Republican support for the Children's Health Insurance Program.
We believe she can do the one thing that President Obama has not done and that Mr. Sanders may not do, with his ambivalent record on guns (including voting against the Brady bill) — use her political skills to get greater gun controls. Dec. 14, 2012, has tragically made that Connecticut's salient issue.
As a moderate Democrat, she might appeal to a wider swath of independents in the general election than Mr. Sanders would. This is no small matter because Democrats need someone who can beat the Republican front-runner who would be ruinous as president: Donald Trump.
The next president will need a spine to preserve the gains made by Obamacare in insuring Americans. She has it. Mr. Sanders would undo those gains by starting anew, at enormous expense, with a single-payer system. Republicans would also undo them, just to erase a Democratic legacy.
Why Not Mr. Sanders?
Mr. Sanders is appealing in his promises: Who doesn't want tuition-free universities, single-payer health care and bigger Social Security checks? But the costs are far greater than he's acknowledging. Also, the tax increases required would make Congress keel over. Finally, the quality of his Medicare-for-all system wouldn't match today's.
He is idealistic. But he is also unrealistic.
Mrs. Clinton has turned dreams into laws. She has fought for the underclass, championing the causes of women and children around the world. Her grasp of foreign policy is deep — including, through sorry experience, the limits of U.S. power.
Given her resume, few people today are more qualified for the Oval Office than she is.
Copyright © 2016, Hartford Courant
Bernie Sanders Hillary Clinton Iranian Nuclear Program
http://www.courant.com/opinion/editorials/hc-ed-hillary-clinton-our-choice-for-democratic-nomination-20160415-story.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
Great endorsement! 
