This past weekend’s daily newspaper endorsements for the nation’s next president kept Barack Obama solidly in the lead, with 50 more papers for Obama in one day, including two that were solidly for George W. Bush in 2004, according to the latest tally by Editor & Publisher.

Updated Sunday, E&P’s ongoing tally put Obama’s total at 106 endorsements, compared with 33 so far for John McCain.

The Las Cruces Sun-News joined the Santa Fe New Mexican in the Obama column as the only New Mexico papers on the list so far, with no dailies as yet in the McCain column.

Among those endorsing Obama was The Denver Post, which endorsed Bush in 2004. E&P added:

In a real shocker, two solid Bush papers in 2004, the Houston Chronicle and Austin American-Statesman, also came out for Obama today. So did the more traditionally Democratic News & Observer in Raleigh and the Orlando Sentinel, both in key battleground states.

Obama’s lopsided margin, including most of the major papers that have decided so far, is in stark contrast to John Kerry barely edging George W. Bush in endorsements in 2004 by 213 to 205.

McCain did pick up a Texas nod from the San Antonio paper, plus a big one from the Columbus Dispatch in Ohio, as well as The San Diego Union-Tribune. All backed Bush in 2000 and 2004.

Daily news-philes might also find interesting an E&P “exclusive” report that the Anchorage Daily News’ online version experienced a 928 percent spike in readers in September, making it the most-viewed Web site of 30 national newspapers.

The Web site enjoyed a 928% spike to 2.1 million monthly uniques in September, no doubt due to the paper’s excellent coverage of Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin.

In addition to politics, the financial meltdown … also helped boost the amount of visitors to newspaper Web sites. All in the top 30 experienced double-digit increases in September monthly uniques with the lone exception of Village Voice Media (down 13% to 1.7 million).

The Wall Street Journal was up 94% to 9 million uniques compared to the same month a year ago. Politico shot up 219% to 4.6 million.