It’s too risky to to give Palin top post, warns her state paper

• Alaska publication is happy that governor gave their area good publicity, but that’s all

LOS ANGELES

Alaska’s top newspaper on Monday endorsed Democrat Barack Obama for the White House, saying it would be too risky to put their Republican state governor Sarah Palin just “one 72-year-old heartbeat from the leadership of the free world.”

The Anchorage Daily News, the leading daily in the overwhelmingly Republican state, called Palin’s vice-presidential nomination “an improbable and highly memorable event” and added that “many Alaskans are proud to see their governor, and their state, so prominent on the national stage.”

Nevertheless, the newspaper editorial deemed her not yet ready to serve in the White House, and saying the hometown boosterism “does not overwhelm all other judgment.”

The paper was even more scathing in its assessment of the top of the Republican ticket.

“Our sober view is that her running mate, Senator John McCain, is the wrong choice for president at this critical time for our nation,” the daily wrote.

“Senator Barack Obama, the Democratic nominee, brings far more promise to the office,” the Daily News said.

“In a time of grave economic crisis, he displays thoughtful analysis, enlists wise counsel and operates with a cool, steady hand. The same cannot be said of Senator McCain.”

Particularly on the top campaign issue – the faltering US economy –the newspaper said McCain “has stumbled and fumbled badly in dealing with the accelerating crisis as it emerged.”

“His behaviour in this crisis – erratic is a kind description – shows him to be ill-equipped to lead the essential effort of reining in a runaway financial system and setting an anxious nation on course to economic recovery.”

Meanwhile, the McCain campaign received the good news that his home state newspaper this weekend gave the Arizona senator its backing.

“We have seen the irascible McCain. The bawdy and irreverent McCain. And, yes, the temperamental McCain,” the Arizona Republic wrote.

“Nobody in the country knows the Republican presidential candidate better than we do. And no one is better placed to judge whether he would serve honourably and admirably as president of the United States.

“We are confident he will. The Arizona Republic proudly recommends John McCain for president.”

Meanwhile, Mr Obama outlined today a “closing argument” to voters as the Democrat’s epic duel with beleaguered Republican John McCain entered its final full week.

With just seven days to go until polling, the pair were campaigning in the rust-belt states of Ohio and Pennsylvania after a weekend battleground blitz through western states tilting towards the African-American Obama, 47.

More than 150,000

A day after drawing more than 150,000 supporters to monster rallies in Colorado, Obama hammered McCain on the election’s defining issue – the stricken US economy – but also appealed to voters to choose “hope over fear.”

“It’s about a new politics – a politics that calls on our better angels instead of encouraging our worst instincts,” he said in a retooled stump speech that aides said was Obama’s “closing argument” as the campaign climaxes.

More than jobs, trade and financial stability had been lost under President George W. Bush, the Democrat said in excerpted remarks released by aides ahead of a rally in Canton, Ohio.

“That’s what’s been lost these last eight years – our sense of common purpose; of higher purpose. And that’s what we need to restore right now.”

Mr McCain convened top economic advisers in Cleveland before restating his economic manifesto and accusing Obama of secretly plotting to hike taxes.

“I know it’s pleasant to listen to Senator Obama’s rhetoric but look at the record -- he has voted to raise taxes on individuals making as little 42,000 dollars, those are facts,” McCain said.

“Today he claims he’ll tax the rich; but we’ve seen in the past that he’s been willing to hit people squarely in the middle class.”

Obama meanwhile berated his Republican foe for offering nothing new to what he called the discredited economic policies of the profoundly unpopular Bush.

“When it comes to the economy ... the plain truth is that John McCain has stood with this president every step of the way,” the Illinois senator said.