My year as managing editor of The Sun was pretty much an election off-year. Aside from the race between challenger Gwen Wilkinson and the late incumbent George Dentes ’76 for Tompkins County District Attorney (which, for local election buffs and local newspaper editors was actually pretty exciting), there really wasn’t much to follow. As such, there really wasn’t much endorsement controversy among The Sun’s editors. Since we more-or-less supported the Redbud Woods protesters and most of us were Democrats, unless my memory escapes me, The Sun supported Wilkinson in the race.

I can imagine it would have been fun to sit down and decide who to endorse in a presidential election. The Sun’s history of being on the left-leaning side, however, generally means that it will likely support whoever is running on the Democratic ticket.

It’s a rare year like this, with a heavily contested Democratic primary, that could actually have produced controversy among The Sun’s editors as to who to endorse. While I can’t say I was privy to any of the conversations that led to The Sun’s decision to endorse Barack Obama a couple of months ago, I’m going to go out on a limb and assume it probably wasn’t an overly tough call. It’s likely that most of The Sun’s editors fall in line with much of the rest of young America in supporting the senator from Illinois.

But something interesting happened at The Daily Pennsylvanian last week — they didn’t endorse Obama, instead opting to jump onto the Hillary bandwagon.

And, I have to say, I’m pretty impressed.

Last month, the Penn Democrats announced their endorsement of Obama, quite possibly, but not definitively showing the political climate of the Penn campus. In addition, according to an article in Inside Higher Ed (written by former Sun Editor in Chief Andy Guess ’05), “the crossfire intensified … when student leaders from several Philadelphia-area colleges jointly signed a letter, dated April 18, affirming their support of the Illinois senator.”

You would think, based on all of this movement in one direction, that the DP would likely be influenced by the student body that it prints for everyday. But it wasn’t. It made a reasoned, pragmatic choice (and you can think so regardless of which candidate you support in this race).

And, frankly, that takes guts.

Here’s an excerpt:

“Our endorsement is not a rejection of Obama's leadership qualities. But choosing the president of the United States is too important a decision to make based on hope alone. After finishing his term in the Senate and better showing us what he can do for the American people, Obama could one day be a remarkable president.

“Clinton, on the other hand, is ready to lead this nation now. A successful champion for change, her experience in the Senate and as first lady gives her a better understanding of how Washington works. She has the ability to turn policy into reality. And her mastery of causes central to the Democratic Party's platform makes her better suited to challenge presumptive Republican nominee John McCain.”

While I tend to be Obama-leaning in this race, that’s an endorsement that I can respect.

This is not to criticize The Sun (or any other newspaper, college or otherwise, for that matter) for endorsing Obama or any candidate. It’s also not to say that there aren’t college students out there who support Clinton — there certainly are. It’s just to recognize the fact that the D.P. made what I think is a fairly courageous move last week in the face of extreme local and national support for the opposite candidate. And they made this move with the national media (and the Colbert Report) staring them in the face.

Regardless of whether this was a contentious decision or not, the editorial board of The Daily Pennsylvanian deserves to be applauded for applying independent thought to one of the most significant aspects of an editorial board’s charge.

Watch the opinion pages this fall for a new bi-weekly or monthly column from the combined efforts of The Sun and the Cornell Law Review. Provisionally titled “Barely Legal,” the column will feature rotating editors and associates from the Law Review who will opine on legal topics of interest to undergraduate students and the Cornell community at large. Have a great summer.

Eric Finkelstein ’06 is a former Sun managing editor and is currently a second-year student in the Law School. He can be contacted at efinkelstein@cornellsun.com. Saturdays Excepted appeared alternate Mondays this semester.