In New Hampshire Newspaper, Gingrich Gets Coveted and Ferocious Supporter

Newt Gingrich may not have much money to spend on advertising in New Hampshire. But he does have Joseph W. McQuaid, the publisher of New Hampshire’s largest newspaper, The Union Leader.

And McQuaid will happily spill barrel after barrel of ink trying to tear every other candidate down. “Our job is to say, ‘Here’s our guy. Here’s why he’s the best, and why all the others are the worst,’ ” Mr. McQuaid said in a recent interview. He had just finished a front-page editorial for Sunday’s paper that ripped into Mitt Romney, who leads Mr. Gingrich by double digits in the polls. “Romney may be the WORST candidate,” he wrote. “There’s no reason to be subtle,” McQuaid said. McQuaid and his newspaper are the Siberian tigers of political journalism: ferocious and endangered. At a time when editorials and newspapers themselves are playing a smaller role in American politics, the brash and biting Union Leader still commands the attention and respect of the country’s most prominent politicians. Every four years, they flatter and pay homage to the newspaper in hope that they can secure what remains one of the most coveted endorsements of the presidential election.