N.H. paper backing Christie has picked losers since 1988

This Daily News front page from Jan. 9, 2014, is worth running again now that the New Hampshire Union Leader newspaper has given its presidential endorsement to Governor Christie, who is last among GOP candidates in state polls.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

In case you missed The Record's Sunday story on a New Hampshire newspaper endorsement of Governor Christie, you'll find another one on Page A-3 today.

The Union Leader on Saturday gave its presidential endorsement to the GOP bully, the latest in a long line of losers that paper has backed since 1988.

That means that except for 2004, none of the Republicans endorsed by the Union Leader went on to win the big prize, the White House.

The endorsement went to Newt Gingrich in 2012, John McCain in 2008, Steve Forbes in 2000, Pat Buchanan in 1996 and 1992, and Pete du Pont in 1988.

Christie is running seventh among Republican contenders in state polls of New Hampshire voters leading up to the Feb. 9 primary.

Why did The Record run stories for two days in a row on the same newspaper endorsement?

Rutgers news

The Record today corrects a major error on Sunday's front page, where it named the wrong team in reporting the loss of Rutgers University's football team on Saturday.

However, none of the half-dozen major errors in Staff Writer Christopher Maag's Sunday story on commuter rail in North Jersey were corrected.

Although today's front page is dominated by more news about Rutger's football team, the real crisis is at the Woodland Park daily.

Devoting so much of Page 1 to Rutgers football, and playing the story under a big, black doomsday headline, surely had tens of thousands of readers cursing their misfortune.

This is a non-story for the vast majority of readers, yet it seems to fascinate Editor Martin Gottieb, who left The New York Times to take over the newsroom of the Woodland Park daily.

Local news?

There is so little local news today, Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza had to run long wire-service obituaries about an obscure U.N. official and an even obscurer Japanese actress on L-6.

Meanwhile, freelancer Nina Rizzo must be trying to steer patients to a cardiac-surgery practice with three recipes for macaroni and cheese (BL-1).

They are filled with unhealthy ingredients -- butter, half-and-half, heavy cream, full-fat cheese and bacon.