Many Holes in Disclosure of Nominees’ Health

Pros
The lead explained the purpose for the article and what you were going to learn by reading it. The lead does not try to grab your attention with a clever line because the topic is so urgent that it will get people read.

One thing that I did like was the way they wrote out the information about the all of the candidates’ past illness. There were a lot of numbers and dates thrown at the reader but the reporter was able to bring it all together by describing how the illness could affect the candidates in the future and how it should affects our vote. The pack number system showed that even though Obama is healthy now that there is always a chance that he will fall victim to the many smoke related disease that are out there. The countless surgeries that McCain has had showed that his melanoma can return at any moment.

The reporter did what he could with the information he gathered about Sarah Palin and still wrote some very interesting set of words. I especially liked how he wrote the story about her water breaking at a conference in Dallas and how she had to fly over to Alaska at race against time to get her baby delivered.

The Ronald Reagan quote “resign” shows that the only option that some of these candidates have is to quit if their illness returns or they get infested with a new one.

Cons
When the writer said that McCain’s 1,200 page medical information was released in a restricted way that it still does not answer questions; I wanted to know what he meant by that.

I would place accounts from the summary in the article a little earlier. For example, the story about Mr. Tsongas withdrawing from the race could have gone nicely with the McCain’s story. The lack of information about Sarah Palin could have been buffed up by using the information about Mr. Eagleton being a running mate and because he did not released information about his illness then it cost him at the end. We don’t know a lot about Palin and there is chance that she might be hiding something to.

The article was seen from eyes as a tool that would hurt McCain’s chance to win the election. The line “Mr. McCain’s difficulty raising his arms and his sometimes awkward gait are remnants of severe, untreated injuries he suffered in Vietnam.” really painted the picture of a beat up old man as well as someone who is pass their prime. I know the reporter it just writing out the facts but he shows a little favoritism towards Obama by portraying him as a strong individual who was able to fight against smoking even though he bummed a smoke during his campaign.