This endorsement makes some history for the Chicago Tribune. This is the first time the newspaper has endorsed the Democratic Party's nominee for president.

Gutenberg wrote:
Holy smoke. I never thought THAT would happen.

I was at Interlochen, Mich., the summer that Watergate came to the boil. The Trib was the only big-city paper we could get there. The paper didn't cover all that much about Watergate, but what it did print leaned toward Nixon, and the editorial page thundered on about special prosecutors and their abuse of power. Nothing about Nixon's abuse of power to be sure!

At the beginning of August the Trib printed an editorial that said Nixon should step aside for the good of the country. We figured it was over and sure enough, a couple of days later Nixon resigned.

The thing was Interlochen was crawling with Watergate kids--little Zieglers and Strachans and Garments and Sloans. So we had to watch what we said, not because of any official edict but because they were nice kids and no one wanted to hurt them.

After the way the Trib defended Nixon that summer, I never figured they would go for anyone but a Republican, but then Obama's a favorite son, so maybe that has something to do with it.