Having missed the debates that were aired in the few past weeks, I was afraid going into this article that it would be full of jargon and concepts that would fly over my head. Politics honestly scare me. It's such a daunting topic that effects so many that I get intimidated and would prefer to just shy away from the whole issue. With this being an election year, and it being the first time in my life that I will be able to vote, I feel it's extremely important to take a good look at what's going on and do my best to understand it. In my opinion this article did a fantastic job at reporting such an important issue in a way that seemed friendly yet informative.
The lead did exactly what it was supposed to- it got me to keep reading. To help matters, it wasn't a topic lead which right off the bat makes me like it even more. I understand that the purpose of reading the news it to get news, but I would prefer writing "speak" to me, rather than "tell" me straight facts. Zuckman, the author of this piece did just that.
The focus of this article was how the presidential candidates are stepping up their respective game plans in order to get the most of what what they can out of these last days before the election. The article states that most change has occurred in the Midwest already, where McCain is shying away from Michigan and upping efforts in Wisconsin and Obama is now putting more effort into the state of Minnesota. It seems that besides merely shifting their focus to different states, the campaigns of both candidates are also changing their plans of attack.McCain's camp will be diverting their attention to "questioning Obama's experience" and how Obama's aggressive liberal record will be too much for the American public. Obama's camp in turn, will focus on how electing McCain is supporting another four year's of the current administration's policies.
Zuckman used sources such as Greg Strimple, a senior McCain adviser, David Plouffe, campaign manager for Obama, democratic senator Dick Durbin, various strategists and an assitant director of the Quinnipiac Unversity Polling Institute, among others, to offer both sides of the story. There seems to be no holes in the story, everyhwere there is a term that one may not know there is a link that sends you to a website with more information on the matter. There aren't too many facts being given, so there are no issues with facts being substantiated or anything like that, and everytime there is a quote or an instance of someone making a claim that is not general knowledge there is proper attribution given.
Overall, I was completely pleased with this piece. It not only gave both sides of an important story, it also gave the reader a sense of understanding of what is to come in the following days towards the presidential elecion in a way that was completely human while still remaining professional.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-campaign-sprint-bdoct05,0,1587067.story
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Jess- I really like your assessment of this article. Since coming to campus I was kind of in your position, a little too busy to be checking on updates in the election.
You're right, Zuckman does do a nice job analyzing how the race has shifted in the past few weeks. The focus on the economy is HUGE in this article--rightfully so, I may add.
I thought Dick Durbin made a really good point in this article, saying (and I'm paraphrasing) that the time has finally come to look past petty arguments between the campaigns. The two need to address how we're going to fix the messed up economy and whoever can do that best is going to win in Novemeber.
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