Article Reviews

Alison Newkirk
October 23, 2008
2nd period

Article Review– “What Right Wingers Mean When They Call Obama a Socialist.” -Adam Serwer, The American Prospect.
http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=is_john_lewis_right_after_all
This article is discussing past influential black leaders in the United States and how they were seen as socialist and communist. The most recent black leader in the country, Barack Obama, is now being accused of the very same things. Mostly thanks to John McCain and Sarah Palin’s attempts to make Obama unpopular to the public. McCain is said to be creating an enviroment for violence and hatred against the Democratic Presidential candidate. Basically they are trying to make Obama look bad and by doing this they are questioning his intentions as president by saying he associates with terrorists and will be the downfall of our country. Obama has even been said to be the tool in dismantling our democracy and taking it over with communism. This is feeding right into the minds of Americans and causing a state of paranoia and panic. None of the allegations against Obama are proven true – they are just a mill of rumors and words that are only making things more complicated for this election. The author of this article is clearly defending Obama. And only the facts should be present in any presidential election. We don’t need to hear false accusations when an honest man who really could make a difference for our country is at stake.

Article Review- “Voting against Obama doesn’t make you Racist.” -William Glenn Beck, CNN.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/09/beck.issues/index.html
This article is discussing how the issue of racism is taking on too big of a role in this election. If you are against Obama you are automatically assumed to be racist, however you aren’t considered sexist if you are against Sarah Palin? Whenever McCain or Palin brings up Obama’s alleged “neighbor/friend” William Ayers (who is also a terrorist) the race card gets pulled out. But that doesn’t make very much sense considering Ayers has white skin. Just because Barack Obama is black doesn’t mean every attack against him as a person, senator, or candidate for the presidency is based off a racist opinion. But the Democrats seem to see it like that. It’s their only way to fend off all the attacks on Obama. The author is clearly defending McCain in this article. He doesn’t think McCain is racist at all, and neither do I. But it seems like everytime the name Barack Obama comes out of John McCain or Sarah Palin’s mouth it is automatically assumed to be based off racist beliefs.

Article Review- “Does Race Really Matter?” –Michael A. Cohen, New York Times.
http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/05/does-race-really-matter/?ref=opinion
This article is discussing whether or not this country is ready for a black president. The breakdown of race in this campaign favors Barack Obama over John McCain. People think Obama’s skin color is a disadvantage but it may be a beneficial. It gives him diversity and a lot of people are ready for a change and Barack Obama offers just that. A change. He is something that is not like George Bush or John McCain and he definitely has very different ideas from them. Now there still are a lot of supporters of McCain who are completely against a black president but a lot of people are starting to side with Obama’s.