In 2004, the
Tribune endorsed
President Bush for re-election, a decision consistent with its longstanding support for the
Republican Party. On October 17, 2008, the paper made an endorsement that the paper admitted "makes some history for the
Chicago Tribune." For the first time in its 161-year history, the
Chicago Tribune endorsed a Democratic Party's nominee for president with its backing of Barack Obama's election bid.<sup id="cite_ref-64" class="reference">
<span>[</span>65<span>]</span></p>
The
Tribune has previously backed independent candidates. In 1872, it supported
Horace Greeley, a former Republican Party newspaper editor,<sup id="cite_ref-65" class="reference">
<span>[</span>66<span>]</span> and in 1912 the paper endorsed
Theodore Roosevelt, who ran on the
Progressive Party slate against Republican President
William Howard Taft.</p>