Criticizing Trump?! (No, it's an excuse to criticize Bill Clinton.)

The first local editorial that contains any criticism of Donald Trump was published yesterday afternoon. Despite attacks on war heroes, women, Muslims, the handicapped, Mexicans, immigrants, and inner-city residents, neither paper has ever had a negative word to say about the candidate. In an editorial yesterday afternoon, the News-Register broke new ground with a one-sentence criticism of Trump. Unfortunately, the one sentence is just an excuse to launch an attack on Bill Clinton. Here is the entire editorial:

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump most certainly deserves the criticism he is receiving for crude, demeaning comments about women.

But what about Hillary and Bill Clinton? Trump is being slammed for talk.

Bill Clinton acted, over and over again in abusing women and cheating on his wife — who repeatedly attacked her spouse’s victims with accusations. What is worse? Talk or action?

(Note -- Bill Clinton is not running for president.)

In what is most-likely an unintended irony, the editorial is titled "Criticism One Sided."

Spinning one for Portman

In this morning's editorial, "Portman Putting Principle First," we learn that Republican senatorial candidate Rob Portman is a principled (as opposed to political) candidate:

U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, at times has taken stances on the issues that he must have known risked alienating some voters. So when he announced he is retracting his support of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, he did so out of principle, not politics.

Let's see. The Trump story broke on Friday afternoon. On Saturday, after a full day of Trump criticism from throughout the political spectrum including many Republicans who had previously supported Trump, Portman tweeted the following at 9:33 PM:

While I continue to respect those who still support Donald Trump, I can no longer support him.

Yes, it took Portman 30 hours to do the "principled" rather than "political" thing. Checking Ohio news sources gives a different impression of the reasons for his decision. Here's what WCMH-TV in Columbus reported Saturday evening:

Democrats and allied groups, which long criticized Portman for supporting Trump despite a series of statements that insulted and mocked various groups, had pilloried him throughout the day Saturday. The state Democratic chairman called him “gutless.” The Democratic super PAC American Bridge characterized his silence as “disqualifying” for national office.

And so Ohio's profile in courage rescinded his endorsement of Trump at 9:33 PM Saturday night because, as this editorial tells it:

Portman’s record of placing principle before politics speaks for itself.

Yes, more unintended irony.

Hey, where's the Clinton criticism?

Even though the title suggests that the editorial is about Rob Portman, the Ogden Editorial/Republican Policy Manual states that "editorial writers should strive to attack Barack Obama and/or Hillary Clinton in every editorial (regardless of the topic)." Consequently, we find additional comments about Portman's Democratic opponent, Ted Strickland, followed by this:

But while we’re on the subject of supporting candidates, Strickland remains a staunch backer of Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, despite her own character flaws and her desire to wreck the coal industry and thus eliminate reasonably priced electricity.

When, one may ask, will Strickland stop supporting his party’s candidate for president?

(Note -- the editorial also gets bonus points for working in "reasonably priced electricity" into a totally unrelated editorial.)